Pair of crashes give truck safety grant urgency
Local law enforcement officials are hoping a state regionalization grant will allow them to take care of their own truck safety issues without waiting for a long-term state fix.
NEWINGTON - Local law enforcement officials are hoping a state regionalization grant will allow them to take care of their own truck safety issues without waiting for a long-term state fix.
The grant would increase traffic safety in more than two dozen towns with regionalized accident investigations and enforcement.
“The state has a limited resource in truck inspectors. There are only 24 to 30, and the state police should be on the highways,” Newington Police Chief Richard Mulhall said. “They are never going to be able to service each town on a regular basis, but if we are a team working together, we can do it for ourselves.”
The question of who is enforcing truck safety on local roads regained urgency Sept. 7, when an out-of-control 18-wheeler flatbed flew through the intersection of routes 44 and 10 at Nod Road and literally sailed into a nearby furniture store.
It was the second serious truck crash at the intersection, at the base of Avon Mountain, in two years. The first killed four people, including the driver of the dump truck that caused the fiery 20-vehicle crash.
