T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Semi trucks are on the roads, and authorities warn drivers to exercise caution around them.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Commercial vehicle traffic is heavy on the state and interstate routes that pass through the county, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol is cautioning motorists to take care around these sizable vehicles.

“Large trucks and buses have operating limitations such as blind spots, longer stopping distances and limited manoeuvrability, making it essential for all drivers to focus on safety,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in a statement.

According to data from the highway patrol, of the 59,527 crashes on Ohio’s roadways that involved at least one commercial vehicle from 2016 to 2018, 780 occurred in Belmont County, making Belmont County one of the most frequent crash sites on the eastern edge of the state, exceeded only by Mahoning and Trumbull Counties.

Many of the crashes involving commercial vehicles can be avoided when everyone exercises caution,” Lt. Maurice Waddell of the St. Clairsville post said, adding that the last Belmont County accident involving a commercial vehicle occurred near the end of June.

“It rolled over on it’s side and leaked some diesel fuel out. Now you have to deal with not only the crash scene but now a hazardous material spill,” he said.

In many cases it is the diesel fuel that leaks onto the ground and not the cargo. In the event of a hazardous material spill, the Belmont County Emergency Management Agency responds.

“They work hand-in-hand with the EPA as far as cleaning that stuff up,” Waddell said.

“Fortunately we haven’t had any major hazardous material incidents where a tractor trailer overturns and spills anything out onto the road,” he said. “There is a lot of it traveling through the interstate system, not just I-70 but State Route 7 and the state routes due to oil and gas, things of that nature.”

Waddell said the volume of traffic has remained stable for several years.

“Having 70 come through, it’s always been a lot of semi traffic and it’s going to continue to be that way. We’re right at the heart of it all, through the US on 70. Things going to the east coast and the west coast. There’s a lot of commercial traffic coming through.”

Waddell added that the biggest problem his officers have seen with commercial traffic is the need for greater awareness among motorists of a semi truck’s blind spots.

“The suggestion I would say is if there’s a truck, don’t pass them on the right. Wait till they move over and pass them on the left,” he said. “The other issue is when trucks come to intersections, they need to make wide turns. They need to swing around wide and the problem is that before, a car will pull up close to them, they swing out because they possibly think they’re going left and they make a right and end up getting in a traffic crash.”

He also reminded motorists to be sure of clear distance.

“With a commercial vehicle, they’re so much bigger. It takes so much longer for them to stop. If a car slams on the breaks, a semi needs to maintain a good distance between the car ahead of them so if they do have to make a sudden stop they have enough reaction time to get that 18-wheeler stopped,” he said.

“Normally, if we have a commercial crash on the interstate, it’s going to shut it down for a little,” he said. “That’s something we want to avoid.”

He said most commercial vehicles have a placard with a designation that can be cross-checked against numbers in a hazardous material book listing the material and how to deal with it during a spill.

Belmont County EMA Director David Ivan conducts regular studies of traffic to see what is passing through the county.

“What it all comes down to is driving,” Ivan said. “There’s a lot of vehicles on the road that are hauling hazardous materials. What we’ve seen can range anywhere from regular gasoline to diesel fuel, all the way up to corrosive chemicals.”

Ivan added that this year’s study has not been done, but prior years have seen more sand trucks and brine trucks due to the oil and gas industry.

“Primarily throughout the county are the acids and the hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons being your diesel and propane.”

“It depends on what vehicle crashes. A regular tractor-trailer, they carry anywhere between 100 to 200 gallons of diesel fuel onboard just to get them down the road. Anything that’s over 25 gallons as a result of a spill is required to be reported to the State of Ohio and the EPA.”

He added that the first priority is containing the spill and preventing it from getting into a waterway. The trucking company is usually responsible for the cleanup afterward.

“Take it easy out there. Don’t be preoccupied with your phone or other things. Make sure your eyes are on the road.”

To ensure trucks using Ohio’s roads are safe, the highway patrol’s commercial motor vehicle inspectors conduct regular inspections. According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, in 2018 I-70 saw 307,000 vehicle lane miles driven by commercial vehicles.