SLOATSBURG, NY — With the Ramapo Mountains forming a rugged backdrop, the stretch of New York State Thruway between Exit 15A and Exit 16 is a pleasant, mostly straight and altogether unremarkable ribbon of highway, looking every bit the prototypical interstate designed to take drivers quickly and safely from city to city.
Pleasant Stretch of Road Proves Deadly, but Why?
SLOATSBURG, NY — With the Ramapo Mountains forming a rugged backdrop, the stretch of New York State Thruway between Exit 15A and Exit 16 is a pleasant, mostly straight and altogether unremarkable ribbon of highway, looking every bit the prototypical interstate designed to take drivers quickly and safely from city to city.
But recently, it has become the Bermuda Triangle of the New York region’s highway network, an unlucky 13 miles that has claimed 25 lives in the past decade, the last three in March, a disproportionately high number. Yet after considerable hand-wringing and analysis, state troopers and transportation officials cannot seem to find anything wrong with the roadway.
“They are basically flukes,” said Sgt. James A. Whittel of the New York State Police, referring to the long string of deadly crashes. “It’s usually that the driver did something bizarre that causes the accident.”
In one accident, on March 17, 2006, the driver of a minivan stopped in the middle of the right traffic lane, not on the shoulder, to check a tire. A tractor-trailer slammed into the van, killing four people, three of them minors. It was the third of four crashes between Feb. 7, 2006, and June 18, 2006, that killed 10 people.
near Suffern to Harriman.
By comparison, through all of 2006, there were 47 fatalities along the entire length of the 641-mile Thruway, which is the longest toll road in the United States.
The perilous section of Thruway runs between Exit 15A in the town of Ramapo and Exit 16 in the town of Woodbury. It cuts right through Sloatsburg, a quiet village 36 miles northwest of New York City, where Rockland County rubs shoulders with Orange County and where local officials have puzzled over the mounting casualties.
“You begin to speculate,” said Carl S. Wright, Sloatsburg’s mayor. “It is a flat stretch, and people go faster. We have more cars on the Thruway than we’ve ever had, and we have much more truck traffic. The trucks are bigger. We’re all concerned.”
Some residents of the area find themselves taking local roads instead, even if it means a longer trip. Imelda Spangler, a retired teacher’s aide from nearby Tuxedo Park, said she ventured between the two exits only with her daughter or sister behind the wheel. “Every time I come with my daughter, I hold my breath,” she said. “It’s spooky.”
After last year’s deaths, a group of Thruway employees with experience in highway engineering and traffic safety examined the stretch, reviewing the accident sites and looking for deficiencies in the roadway.
Sarah Kampf, a spokeswoman for the New York State Thruway Authority, said, “The team did not find anything wrong with the highway itself, and had no reason to suspect that there’s anything about this section of roadway that would account for what seems like an unusual number of accidents.”
She said that the Thruway as a whole had a relatively low fatality rate, which is the number of deaths per miles traveled. In 2005, for example, the fatality rate on the Thruway was 0.28 deaths per 100 million miles driven, compared with the national highway fatality rate that year of 1.47. “The authority is continually recognized as maintaining and operating one of the safest highways in the nation,” she said.
Still, the Thruway Authority decided to take another look at the stretch after the most recent deaths, in mid-March, when three people died in two accidents 50 hours apart. This time, the authority enlisted the help of the Federal Highway Administration, the state’s Department of Transportation and the Division of State Police. The findings are now being compiled, Ms. Kampf said.
In the first accident, on March 13, a tractor-trailer pulled onto a northbound shoulder at about 2:30 a.m. Another tractor-trailer hit the rear of the truck, and both drivers were killed, Sergeant Whittel said.
Two days later, about an hour before dawn, a Monticello man who may have dozed off at the wheel died after ramming the back of a tractor-trailer stopped on a southbound shoulder, Sergeant Whittel said.
Even though the most recent fatal wrecks involved parked tractor-trailers, Sergeant Whittel warned against a crackdown. “The last thing you want to do is have a crusade to stop drivers of tractor-trailers from pulling over on the side of the road,” he said. “There could be legitimate reasons for it, like they’re falling asleep. That’s a good thing for them to pull over when they’re tired.”
Since June 2006, Capt. Marty Hansen of the state police, whose zone includes part of the 13-mile stretch, has dispatched extra patrol cars between Exits 15A and 16. “We concentrate our speed enforcement down in that area more than any other zone, just to get more visibility,” he said. But, he added, “none of those accidents” since February 2006 can be attributed to “unsafe speeds.”
Sergeant Whittel does have one theory that could explain why so many vehicles stop on that portion of the highway. South of Exit 15A, the exits are bunched close together, keeping drivers alert and providing opportunities to get off. “You just came from a stretch where you had exits every few miles,” he said. “Once you get to Exit 15A, there’s no place to pull over.”
North of Exit 16, as the landscape turns more rural, the exits are even more spread out. But the drive also becomes far less stressful, Sergeant Whittel said, because of a drop in traffic volume and the Thruway’s shift from six lanes to four.
Despite his careful consideration of what factors may distinguish that particular section of Thruway, Sergeant Whittel ultimately drew a simpler conclusion. “It’s bad luck,” he said. “It’s hard to avoid that.”
concerned
maybe we can have some mivtzoim done there, or put something that will make a kiddush HaShem which will break that kelipoh?
things to remember
i see that the examples brought here were accident with tractor trailers. maybe we should crack down on the amount of hours they drive per shift.
another thing i remember from the drives to the country is that most of the time this stretch is ok but where there are turns they are bad.
either way just remember slow down and say tefilas haderech, if not for your sake then for the sake of your family members
driver
Don’t drink & drive.
Don’t drive if you’re tired.
ALWAYS wear seatbelts.
Leave plenty of time to get to your destination.
Don’t drive on this highway in really bad weather.
Watch out for crazy drivers, especially truckers.
OBSERVE THE SPEED LIMITS.
AND NEVER, EVER USE A CELL PHONE WHILE YOU DRIVE….ANYWHERE!!!
Upstate Shlucha
It seems to me that the unfortunate heimishe accidents that hhave occured lately, have mostly taken place after dark.
I KNOW that it is much easier to travel with sleeping children. but the AIBISHTER should have rachmonus and we should be able to kiss our kids ‘good morning’ and put them to sleep in there own beds at night.
Maybe it is time to rethink night time traveling. And for those that do travel, REMEMBER TO STOP EVERY HOUR!!!!!!!!!!
And another thing. Get the idea out out of your head that it is OK to nurse a baby out of it’s car seat while traveling!. Pull over or let the baby scream. make the smart choice. sometimes it IS up to us.
An out of towner
Spooky, isn’t it?
Stranger yet, while in middle of reading your article, my “computer” crashed, and I had to shut the whole thing off and restart it to get it going again…
perplexed
why is your computer in quotes???? its not really a computer????
Rick C.
I am a truck driver and a safety manager for a truck company for the last 6 years and I use the new york state thruway everyday..the causes of accident are varied but most come from neglecting to pay attention to the road. I spend my entire day driving and watching other drivers especially truck drivers. Truck drivers are professional that deal with every day varied road conditions all the time but 8 out of tens cases of so called accidents are caused by neglectful car drivers jumping lanes or busy doing something in their car that aren’t paying attention.
It isn’t to say some truck drivers arent to blame but i do get upset to the phrase crazy truck driver or lousy truck driver. Because we deal with alot and try to do our best to be safe and go home to our own families. But many car drivers don’t take driving seriously and take chances at the expense of some one else’s life. take a look at car driver running into the back of a truck that the truck was parked on the side of the road with lights on. why did that car drive off the road? did he or she not see the truck park with the lights on?and where was that drivers eyes looking before they hit a large metal object with lights on.
then there the question “why are trucks parked on the side of the road?” answer is that the driver was tired! And rather than kill some one or many people with a 40 ton vehicle moving at 65 mph he parked it to rest his eyes and mind so he can later get to his destinantion safely.
some ones say to crack down on truck parked on the side of the road- well federal dept of transportation has rules stating that a driver must take a break every 2 hours of driving if he can or must pull over if he or she is running out of driving time on log books, which DoT state no driver shall drive more than 11 hours in a 14 hour work day.
And many local drivers dont even pass that amount of time driving but we do get tired and pull over to rest.many times a driver get to a point of exhaustion that they pull over any where they can before they become a danger. Now what do you the car driver want? a tired driver driving 40 tons of rolling death swervving across lanes or do you prefer a jack knife trailer rolling over atop several cars because the driver was told he can’t pull over any where to rest.
Yes there are some bad truck driver out there but as a whole many truck drivers are more alert and safer than a car driver.We live our life on the road and do the job as a truck driver is because we love what we do. And before you get prejudice about truck drivers think next time about that food you bought at the store or that electronic toy or make up or car your driving , because it didnt just appear a truck brought it to the place you bought it from and with out us moving mechandise all over the country you wouldnt be enjoying your life the way you do now. We keep the country moving and with out us you wouldn’t have nothing.
Everything you have was brought to you by a truck.Not train or plane or Ups or superman just plain old truck drivers the unsung underdogs of America.