Trucks Public Safety Concern

To the Editor:

After reading the recent Letter to the Editor, “Not All Fayetteville Residents Hate Trucks,” I was a bit surprised with the words I read from a supposed longtime resident of Fayetteville who recalls how great our small town was in the 70’s. After much thought I realized that I cannot fault them for not knowing the facts, since the original article (“Fayetteville Residents Fed Up with 18-Wheeler Traffic”) did not depict the entire story or big picture. The original article left the reader believing that the primary issue was the nuisance of the 18-wheelers. Are the 18-Wheelers a nuisance? Absolutely. With a decibel reading of between 110-120 (DB equivalent to a rock concert) in our front yard as well as most front yards on SH-159 I would think most would see it as a nuisance. To take it further the decibel reading within our bedroom is between 85-95 (DB equivalent to a lawnmower) which starts between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. So, is it a nuisance, yes, but unfortunately the original article left out the most important factors regarding the situation. These factors include public safety and historic destruction. I was surprised that the writers of the “Not All Fayetteville Residents Hate Trucks” did not point out these factors. Well, I was surprised until I found out that other longtime residents in Fayetteville had no clue who this writer was. After a quick tax record search from a concerned community member, there showed to be no names in Fayetteville that matched that of the writers. This comes to no surprise since we have consistently received many threats from truckers regarding the recent publicity that they are involved in. Moving forward, I would urge The Fayette County Record to do their due diligence and assure that the readers are reading letters that are true to their depictions. Maybe the Record did and the small community of Fayetteville have just failed to ever meet this so called longtime resident.

If the writer of the letter is truly an actual resident of Fayetteville, it is very sad to me that this resident would trade its community’s safety and historical value all in the name of “Progress.” In the five day work week from Sept 28 – Oct 2, there was a total of 1,073 18-Wheelers who drove through Fayetteville with over 676 traffic laws violations at the intersection of SH-159 & FM-955. Not one of these trucks stopped within Fayetteville to spend money, nor does Fayetteville get any form of revenue from these trucks or trucking companies but instead they tear up our historic property, run out our tourists causing downtown businesses to shut down, and create consistent documented safety hazards. My question is, how is that progress? I guess their meaning of progress would be to add more trucks? They may get that wish soon since our current number is projected to increase from 1,000+ trucks weekly to over 2,500 trucks weekly due to a new gravel pit being made.

We have started a Facebook Group (Fayetteville Tx 18-Wheeler Problem) for residents of Fayetteville to follow/ comment regarding the issue. All who have observed the videos of the 18-Wheelers blatantly breaking the law, running cars off the roadway, blocking ambulances from quickly responding to emergencies or transporting patients to the hospital, and much more all agree that this is a serious public safety concern. Originally the group was open to all of the public but after many threats from truck drivers, the Facebook group has been open to residents of Fayetteville only. I am hoping to reopen only the videos to the public soon. There are currently many behind the scene efforts being taken to remedy the situation as well as contacts within many different entities. Below is a brief description of who has been contacted:

• City Of Fayetteville: A formal complaint has been made. It appears that the City has made no effort to take immediate action to remedy or mitigate the public safety risk which is occurring at the intersection of SH-159 & FM-955. The city has put it on their agenda for the next City council meeting.

• TxDot: After long conversations with TxDot, they advised that TxDot has been aware of this public safety issue for many years. Unfortunately, they have very little authority to stop any vehicle from traveling down a state highway regardless of the public safety hazards involved. They are unable to reroute the trucks around Fayetteville due to how the current law reads even though there are safer, more time efficient routes already in existence. Their only fix was to produce a drawing in which the intersection would be widened. This widening of the intersection would take very large amounts of historic property from property owners as well as change the historic value of our street & residential plats which have remained the same since 1850. Once Tx Dot was made aware of this fact, to my understanding their exact comment was “TxDot no longer has any desire to pursue widening the intersection”.

• Texas Historical Commission: Fayetteville is listed and is held in very high esteem on the National Registry of Historic Places. In regards to the registry, the entire city limits is the “Historic District”. The roadways and plats have remained unchanged since 1850. THC seemed surprised to hear that TxDot and/ or the City is willing to alter this historic significance. The altering of this would only cause an increase of 18-Wheeler traffic which would cause further historic destruction. It was advised that before this could happen a very thorough historical review would have to be conducted and even if (small chance) TxDot was permitted to proceed with the project, State or Federal funds could not be used. This would mean the City or County would have to pay for it. If Fayetteville cannot afford to hire a city police officer then they surely can’t afford to reconstruct an entire intersection which would include purchasing large amounts of historic property as well as fending off the many lawsuits for the altering of our historic city.

• Department of Public Safety: DPS was contacted; they reviewed only a few (out of thousands) of videos showing the public safety hazards. They agreed that there was serious public safety concern regarding this traffic. Unfortunately their only authority is traffic enforcement which at that is even difficult due to man power issues. It was also advised, and I agree, that this enforcement would only be a temporary fix to a serious issue.

• County Sherriff Department: The Sheriff’s Department was contacted; they reviewed only a few (out of thousands) of videos showing the public safety hazards. Their response was almost identical to DPS.

• County Officials: Fayette County officials have been contacted with a hopeful response. The videos were called “Alarming” and the issue has been sent to the state representative. Though this is great, it is a very long process.

The bottom line is that we have a public safety concern in Fayetteville with a large amount of the community coming together to get answers and demand a fix to the problem. The 18-Wheeler drivers (of course not all) and trucking companies can attempt to discredit us, make threats, and/or try to sabotage all efforts but our community is strong, we will remain strong until a legitimate solution is found. We, as a community, understand that the vast majority of truck drivers are working very hard to support their families as are we. There are other routes out there which show to be very close in mileage and time. The only difference seems to be that those routes have more law enforcement as well as possible weigh stations. Surely these truck drivers and companies are not risking so much in regards to public safety to only shave a few minutes off a trip or to avoid law enforcement?

Roger Parker Fayetteville