One person is dead after two tractor trailers crashed on I-16 east Friday morning in Laurens County near mile marker 45. That's the second major accident on I-16 involving tractor trailers within the last week.
Traffic accidents are a headache for everyone involved, but the accident Friday marks the first traffic death in Laurens County this year. Now, Georgia State Patrol troopers say they're stepping up patrol on I-16 as they expect more drivers to hit the road.
Sergeant Mackay Bloodworth with the Georgia State Patrol says they're investigating more accidents involving semis on the road. “We hope that this is just an anomaly and not a continuing trend,” said Bloodworth. “This is the first fatality that the state patrol has investigated for this calendar year.”
This accident shut down one lane of I-16 in Dublin for nearly 12 hours. It's the second major accident involving semi-trucks on the highway in about a week. The second accident happened last Thursday at mile marker 64. “We see a lot of container trucks, trucks going back and forth to the port of Savannah, and we actually expect that number to increase with the deepening of the port,” said Bloodworth.
According to the Georgia Department of Transportation data in 2016, on average, about 24,000 vehicles a day traveled on I-16 in Laurens County. About one out of five of those were trucks. “People should use caution around those commercial vehicles. Don't travel too close and don't be impatient.”
And to help with the flow of traffic, Bloodworth says you'll see more troopers monitoring the highway. “We're not out here looking to issue a lot of tickets. We're doing what we can to help make the road safer,” said Bloodworth.
Here's another thing to remember as we share the roads with more trucks. Bloodworth says if you can't see their mirrors, those drivers can't see you, so try and keep your distance.