Indiana town to lower speed limit for semi trucks only

Metropolis officers in Chesterton, Indiana, say that they’ve partnered with the Indiana Division of Transportation (INDOT) to scale back the pace restrict for vans with the intention to defend the “coronary heart of the city” from “semi-tractor trailers barreling by at 60 miles per hour or higher.”

In a Tuesday information launch, the City of Chesterton introduced that INDOT has agreed to “decrease the pace restrict for vans—and for vans solely—from 50 miles per hour to 40 mph alongside Ind. 49 within the City of Chesterton.“

Metropolis officers say that INDOT will decrease the pace restrict “as quickly as potential. As quickly as their schedule permits.”

Chesterton Police Chief Tim Richardson defined the reasoning for reducing the pace restrict for vans solely: “The sheer dynamics of Ind. 49 in Chesterton and the way in which you’re coming over hills and round curves, reducing the pace restrict to 40 isn’t meant to punish the truckers, as a result of they’re essential and important to our society at present. However by the sheer dynamics, it offers them extra stopping distance at site visitors lights and we hope that vastly improves security. We didn’t need to punish motorists, Chesterton residents and folks passing by, by making them do 40. The dynamic actually impacts the truckers due to their weight and their stopping distances.”

“If the pace for vans is 50, they’re doing 58, and that’s method too quick to to cease in time after they’re coming over the overpass or round these curves,” Richardson added. “If it says 40, we hope they keep between 40 and 46 or 47 after which they’ll have the best stopping distance.”

Officers say that the push for the truck pace restrict change was caused by a current accident involving a truck.

“Till it may nearly be stated, now, that Ind. 49 actually IS the guts of the city, pierced although it’s—a whole lot and a whole lot of instances a day—by semi-tractor trailers barreling by at 60 miles per hour or higher. Not simply by semis, in fact, however by vehicles, SUVs, minivans, and pickups. It’s the semis, nevertheless, which trigger probably the most harm—each to different passenger autos and to life and limb—when a trucker makes a mistake: rear-ends somebody, sideswipes somebody, or T-bones somebody in an intersection. We all know that. Everyone knows that. And on occasion a trucker reminds us anyway by enjoying red-light roulette. Visitors security has been foremost on Dunelanders’ minds since retired CHS swim coach Kevin Kinel was grievously injured by a semi operating a purple gentle on Might 8,” the Metropolis of Chesterton stated.

City officers additionally plan to assemble three turnaround cross-over culverts within the median between East Porter Ave. and the Indiana Toll Highway to offer native police a handy place to stage and conduct stationary patrol to “monitor site visitors lights and the pace and the truck lane.