Truck speed an issue in West Penn
The matter of tanker trucks’ speed along a dangerous highway remains a hot point of contention in West Penn Township.
James Land Jr., president and owner of Ringgold Acquisition Group II LLC, told supervisors on Monday that he was recently barraged by drivers after a resident said last month that tanker trucks were driving too fast.
Allison McArdle said drivers were driving at excessive amounts of speed between Route 309 and Fort Franklin Road, especially during the evening and nighttime hours.
Land asked township police Chief Brian Johnson how many drivers have since been cited for speeding in that area. Johnson said none.
“I just ask that we respect that the road is being used by all vehicles,” Land said. “They were accused of doing something that was simply false.”
McArdle told Land she had numerous videos that she could show him.
“It’s not all of them,” McArdle said. “It’s just a few bad apples.”
Board Chairman Tony Prudenti took a moment to thank the trucking companies for doing a great job.
McArdle said, “I just wanted them to slow down so my kids can be safe.”
Prudenti explained that the township is so large that they work on complaints.
He said the township doesn’t have enough manpower, and urged anyone who sees anything to let the township know so that it can try to address it.
After the meeting, McArdle said she plans to address the trucking companies on her own, in person.
Last month, McArdle told the board the trucks have been “speeding” and “driving very aggressively.”
She said that it wasn’t all the truckers who were speeding.
Prudenti instructed the township secretary to write letters to the trucking companies who were driving the tanker trucks on Blue Mountain Drive.
Additionally, Prudenti said the township would try to have more of a police presence in that vicinity at night.
Prudenti previously said his solution to get truck traffic off the township’s roads was to negotiate a water extraction and road agreement with Land, and suggested that at Land’s expense, he run a pipeline out onto a state road.