DADvocate

During the past week, I've been hearing radio ads sponsored by Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement to "Leave More Space for Trucks." (Press release HERE.) While the program is called " “TICKETING AGGRESSIVE CARS AND TRUCKS”, the emphasis seems to be heavily on ticketing cars.

Ten or more times a week, I drive the AA Highway (Hwy. 9) from Maysville, KY to Alexandria, KY 10 or more times. It is a fairly new highway, relatively straight but with lots of hills and side roads. Passing lanes go up most of the hills. For the 15 miles closest to Alexandria it is a four lane divided highway.

As one might expect, I've seen my share of bad driving and the trucks scare me a lot more than the cars. Although the speed limit is 55 mph, trucks often exceed 70, sometimes 80 mph. I suspect they avoid getting caught by using CB radios or such. I've seen truck pass on double yellow lines. The worst I've seen is when a truck passed over a double yellow line going up a hill with a passing lane and car was in the left passing lane passing another car in the right lane. Fortunately, no one topped the hill coming in the opposite direction.

Recently, semi ran a traffic light and killed a 14 year old girl on the AA Highway. The traffic light has caution lights that flash when the light is turning red on the side of the road a quarter of a mile before the traffic light. Yet, for some reason, Kentucky seems to think it's more important to go after cars than trucks.

Telling drivers to give trucks their space stands as a good bit of wisdom. The way too many of the maniac drivers operate their rigs, they need a road of their own. When I taught my son to drive, I told him to stay away from semis and other big trucks because of the obvious dangers. But ticketing cars instead of truck is ridiculous until I only see trucks driving within 5 mph of the speed limit, not tailgating cars and practicing other safe driving rules.