Trucks in fatal ramp crashes

April 8, 2016

Truck drivers parked beside interstate ramps were primary targets in the Highway Patrol’s ticket-writing campaign in 2015.

Larry Kahaner

Truck drivers parked beside interstate ramps were primary targets in the Highway Patrol’s ticket-writing campaign in 2015, but they have been involved in just 1 percent of interstate crash deaths across North Carolina.A News & Observer analysis of crash reports from 2010 through 2014 found seven fatal accidents involving trucks or cars parked on interstate ramps. Ten people died in these crashes.Only four of these crashes and five of the 512 interstate crash deaths in five years were related to tractor-trailers parked on the shoulders of on- and off-ramps. One crash took place in daylight, while the others occurred between 1 and 4 a.m.:Mecklenburg County, Jan. 4, 2010: An alcohol-impaired driver ran off an I-85 off-ramp and struck a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder. The car driver died.Mecklenburg County, March 14, 2011: An alcohol-impaired driver drove his pickup off an I-85 on-ramp and struck a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder. Two pickup passengers died.Yadkin County, Sept. 5, 2012: An alcohol-impaired driver ran off I-77 and struck a tractor-trailer parked partly on the shoulder and partly in the lane of the entrance ramp to a public rest area that had been closed to the public, with barricades preventing entry. The driver died.Iredell County, Nov. 12, 2013: A driver ran off an I-77 on-ramp and struck a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder. The driver died.Source: News & Observer and NCDOT crash reports