NESQUEHONING -- A truck crashed into an auto sales business Friday, one day after a tractor-trailer crashed at an intersection in Carbon County some consider dangerous.
On Thursday, a truck hauling Jeeps crashed, damaging the vehicles on board.
Authorities in Nesquehoning warned us Thursday about that intersection being dangerous and prone to crashes, but when they got the call Friday that a second tractor trailer had crashed in two days, even they didn't believe it, saying at first they thought it was an April Fools Day joke.
Almost identical to Thursday's crash, a tractor-trailer lost its brakes when it was coming down Route 93 in Nesquehoning. Unable to turn at the intersection with Route 209, it rammed straight into the shed of an auto sales business.
"I didn't see it, but I did hear it. It's a high-pitch winding noise and all you hear is the thud at the end," said Phil Coniglao.
Coniglao would've been driving in the path of the tractor trailer at the intersection, but seconds before it flew through, he pulled over at a store less than 100 feet away.
No one was hurt, but that's no longer a relief to authorities in Nesquehoning.
"We can't continue to knowingly allow this to continue happening. Somebody is going to get killed. It's our job to prevent that," said Nesquehoning Police Chief Sean Smith.
Chief Smith says the driver of this tractor-trailer ignored the 38 signs warning him to slow down when coming down the mountain, much like almost all the tractor-trailer drivers who have crashed here.
While police have increased enforcement on Broad Mountain, it's not feasible to have a patrol car there all day, every day.
"I don't want to be the one to see a family killed or a driver killed," the chief said.
That's what State Representative Doyle Heffley is trying to prevent, by asking PennDOT to consider banning trucks on this route.
"This is a main road, as you can see traffic coming behind us now," said Rep. Doyle Heffley /(D) 122nd District. "If a truck has to run 10 or 15 miles out of the way to prevent this, it's a lot cheaper to divert a truck than to deal with an issue like this."
"They should, they should!" said Coniglao. "Because someone is going to get killed! Before someone gets killed, that should be done."
PennDOT reported to us there were four serious crashes at that intersection last year.
People in Nesquehoning feel these last two in two days, certainly seem like valid cause for increased concern.
PennDOT says it does have a meeting scheduled with authorities in Nesquehoning to see what else can be done to prevent these crashes from happening.
