Area shouldn’t have to wait for truck ban enforcement
By:Ruth Luse
It is indeed tragic that a Lambertville video store clerk had to die to bring attention to the shocking fact that State Police are not yet enforcing the 1999 law prohibiting 102-inch tractor-trailers on interstate runs from local highways such as routes 29 and 31.
We know the wheels of government — in this case — often grind slowly, but we, in Hopewell Valley and nearby Hunterdon County, want these huge 18-wheelers off state and local roads now.
Numerous incidents, involving both damage and death, have convinced us there is no place for these monsters on two-lane rural highways. They are frightening and dangerous enough on their own National Highway Network!
We support the pleas of local officials and the Mayors Task Force on Trucks and Traffic — a plea that asks for state enforcement, a plea that local police be given the power to contribute to that enforcement and a plea that 96-inch rigs also be included in the interstate truck ban.
We repeat an earlier opinion — that large trucks of any kind (except those making local deliveries and pickups) should not be permitted at all on Route 29, our state’s only Scenic Byway.
And, we agree with Hopewell Township Committeewoman Kathy Bird-Maurice who said May 18 that “one of the main jobs of government is public safety.” It would appear that until the state begins serious enforcement of the truck ban, it is not doing its job and is not being responsive to real concerns of this area’s citizens.
In turn, to make things easier for those responsible for ban enforcement, we urge local residents and officials to come to terms as quickly as possible with the state, which wants to create a pull-over for northbound Route 31 trucks. The pull-over area is needed and one should be located here in Hopewell Valley — where many of the loyal anti-interstate trucking activists reside.
We applaud all those who have fought and will continue to fight these truck menace battles and urge them to remember, as we are sure they will, that “the squeaky wheel” often does get the grease!