Truck safety flames fanned in Ind.; columnist banks dinner with police chief

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When Jerry Davich, columnist at the Post-Tribune of Chicago-area Merrillville, Ind., wrote about the case of an Indiana truck-car accident in which a death occurred recently, an area police chief challenged him to sit for an hour at the intersection of U.S. 30 and County Road 500W between Valparaiso and Merillville and count the number of trucks running the red light there on 30.

If the columnist didn’t count “at least five trucks per hour” running the light, the chief said, he’d treat the columnist to the “best dinner that money can buy.” At least that’s how Davich reported the exchange in this interesting follow-up column, written after he took up the challenge.

Davich only counted a single tractor trailer blowing through the intersection as the signal lights flashed from yellow to red, but: “I am convinced it happens much more often after hearing from many daily commuters and neighbors who see it on a daily basis,” Davich wrote.

Not that he’s charging truck drivers with all the safety problems U.S. 30 in Porter County, Ind., may see. In fact, he talked to several about the accident his previous column mentioned, and some of their thoughts on problems in the area led to a dissection of the timing of the lights on the roadway and other factors there contributing to safety. Give Davich’s story a read here, and if you run U.S. 30 regularly, give us your two cents.