Trucks keep crossing Rte. 95 span, generating $3M in fines
12:12 PM Tue, Mar 17, 2009 | Permalink
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PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- To the surprise of passersby, the police and the trucking industry itself, trucks keep crossing the Route 95 bridge over the Pawtucket River despite fines for violating its weight limit, according to police statistics. More than 5,600 truckers have been charged with violating the weight postings since November, 2007, and the Rhode Island State Police say they had issued more than $3 million in fines for violations by the end of last month. Also, the number of truckers being caught illegally crossing the bridge isn't dropping, suggesting that the situation may not change any time soon. In February, the police charged 441 drivers with ignoring the weight limit signs, among other violations. "I can't figure it out for the life of me," he said. Officials say the weight limits are needed to keep the bridge, weakened by rust, from deteriorating even faster before the state can replace it. 
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Geez, in Feb alone 441 drivers charges, times $3k a violation, that comes out to $1.32 mil, can't they use that towards fixing the damn bridge??
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Possible solution: Increase the fine amount (to $5k?). Apparently the cost to detour is worth the $3k to these trucking companies if almost 16 violations are given a day.
Question: What are the details for how this money will be allocated? 1. Impacted Pawtucket side road repair 2. the bridge repair 3. State budget deficit?
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Ok - thats a lot of fine money - fix the bridge!
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Obviously the fines aren't big enough!!! We are short on money aren't we? If morons want to keep crossing make them pay dearly.
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Maybe we should post some more weight limits around the state. At this rate we should have enough money to fix all of the bridges.
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Instead of a fine why not try a week in jail. That may do the trick.
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Only the lead paint trial debacle tops this huge embarassment to RI with respect to disrespect for commerce and industry. Every friggin truck on its way from Florida (or where-ever) has to take a time-consuming and money-consuming detour OFF RTE 95 THE NATIONS COMMERCE HIGHWAY because some one or some department or some whatever neglected to maintain a critical bridge. It is embarassing to pay taxes to a state that can't seem to do anything right. The feds sould make this a stimulus priority and fine the incompetents who are putting this obstacle in the way of commerce.
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I believe it; I cross the bridge twice a day, 5 days a week. What I want to know is how many of the fines are actually paid? Does the RI traffic court let any of these guys off without paying. How much of the $3 million in fines has been collected?
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Pawtucket and Central Falls Police should look into the drivers that actually obey the detour speeding through downtown. Between 8pm and 8am I have witnessed trucks fly by my apartment going in excess of 45mph in a 25mph zone. These heavy trucks traveling at high speed shake my whole building, and I’ve almost been killed by one trying to pull out of my parking lot. Why don’t the Pawtucket and Central Falls Police stake out the route and generate some revenue of their own pulling over these speeding drivers? They are hard to miss...
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Hmmmmm, let's see: the detour/warning signs say that it is a $3,000.00 fine for crossing the Pawtucket River Bridge. 5,600 trucks have been cited. That means (and correct me if I am wrong) that the State of Rhode island should have written fines in the amount of $16,800,000.00 rather than the $3,000,000.00 that the article states has been collected. That is a fairly large discrepancy ( $13,800,000.00). Just curious. By the way, how much of the $3M collected goes to the actual repair/replacement of that bridge?
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Has anyone checked to see if the fines are being paid or ignored?
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this is why we should have the weigh stations manned.
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Im sure with the 3 million in fines that the RISP has issued, they could have replaced the bridge by now.
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I believe fine was originally rather less than $3000 ... combining that with the likelihood that violations were most frequent when the ban was first put in place would account for a large part of the discrepancy.
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maybe if they paved the roads in pawtucket/central falls the truckers would be more likely to use the detour. has anyone driven down goff ave/dexter st lately? it's a mess!
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Are the state police doin these patrols as part of the regular shift or as details. if its details we are probably losing money
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Just think of how many more truckers would be caught if RISP was actually watching the bridge all the time. You'd really pull in the cash with backup cars so when some troopers are stopping trucks they aren't missing others.
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The $3,000 has only been getting charged since January or so, I believe, and before that, it was $1,000.
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