In my 17 ½ years of reporting traffic in Atlanta I’ve covered hundreds of crashes involving tipped over tractor trailers on Atlanta interstates. And that’s no exaggeration. Information released by the American Transportation Research Institute shows there were 212 rollover crashes in Georgia involving tractor-trailers between 2001 and 2012.
Not surprisingly, four of the top five “hot-spots” for big rig rollover crashes involved Interstate 285.
Topping the list with 40 incidents is the I-285 and Interstate 75 interchange on the southside perimeter.
Next is the highly publicized and oft criticized I-285 and Interstate 20 interchange on the east side in DeKalb County. There were 32 big rig rollover crashes there between 2001 and 2012. That number has certainly increased between 2012 and now with many high profile wrecks occurring there in recent memory.
Third on the list is a spot that surprised me, I-285 at Interstate 85 on the south side in Fulton County with 31 incidents. That number seems high to me, but when a crash happens at that interchange, we don’t tend to see major traffic tie-ups, so the crashes are, for lack of a better term, less memorable.
We head to Savannah for the fourth hot spot on the list, Interstate 95 and Interstate 16 with 18 rollover truck wrecks. This makes sense because of the enormous amount truck traffic that travels the I-95 corridor between Florida and the northeast.
Rounding out the top five, good ole Spaghetti Junction. Perhaps the most famous interstate interchange in Georgia, this is where I-285 and I-85 meet in DeKalb County and where we saw 17 tractor trailer rollovers between 2001 and 2012. Why is this so low on the list? With its imposing high-flying ramps perhaps truck drivers pay more respect to Spaghetti Junction than other tough transitions.
For insight into the high number of big rig wrecks I leaned on my friend and WSB Traffic Trooper, award winning truck driver Herschel Evans:
Question: Why do you think Atlanta is a hot spot for some many of these types of crashes?
Answer: Atlanta is a major hub of truck traffic. Anytime you have this many trucks in an urban area, there are going to be higher numbers of all types of collisions. That would include rollover crashes. Truck rollovers are the type of crash that draws attention. They take longer to clear, have a larger impact on traffic and therefore they tend to get lots of media coverage.
Q: What can be done to prevent them?
A: Preventing these types of crashes has to be a combined effort. Professional drivers must do our part and pay attention to ramp speed limits. We have to take these ramps at speeds that will allow us to negotiate them safely. Also, the DOT should be making sure that these ramps are sufficiently and uniformly marked.
Q: What are the biggest causes for these types of crashes?
A: The simple answer is centrifugal force. Going too fast around these ramps with a tall, heavy vehicle is not going to end well. A load that shifts from being improperly secured can add to the problem. A ramp that doesn’t have sufficient markings can certainly be a factor. 285/75 on the north side of Atlanta is marked much better than 285/75 on the south side where almost four times as many rollovers occurred. That fact just can’t be ignored.
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