At least one state trooper is “sick” of finding truck drivers stuck in a construction zone on I-20 in Louisiana during the temporary truck ban.
The Interstate 20 rehabilitation project started in September of 2023, prompting a ban of semi trucks as the temporary traffic configuration grew more narrow and treacherous for commercial vehicles. Since the December 2023 ban, hundreds of truck drivers have been issued citations for violating the ban, but issues with trucks overturning in the construction zone have continued.
Truck driver Trinidad Calderon says he was on I-20 in Louisiana in the construction zone just last week when a fellow driver overturned his rig, causing a traffic backup that lasted for 16 hours. Calderon says that he and about seven other truckers were stuck on I-20 all together, and that all of them were cited for failure to obey construction signs while sitting in the traffic.
Calderon says he was standing outside of his vehicle speaking with a motorist during the backup when a “state trooper showed up. Citizen says ‘how are you this evening, State Trooper?’ He goes ‘I’m sick of these f***in’ truck drivers.’”
Despite frustration from law enforcement, Calderon believes that the problem is with poor signage, not stubborn truck drivers. He says that citing driver’s won’t help, but changing the signs to be more noticeable might.
“Of course we got bad apples in every industry. But I don’t think every one of those truckers, like the seven guys that were there with me, I don’t think none of us could tell us what those signs said because we never saw them,” Calderon said to KSLA.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation says they have no plans to change the signs, and that the truck drivers are at fault for not paying attention.
“If he [Calderon] was traveling westbound into the project, it was not just one sign that was missed. It would have been numerous signs that were missed, so that tells me that there is a lack of awareness,” said Erin Buchanan, who works with LaDOTD.
Buchanan says that officers will continue to enforce the ban with the signs as-is, “just to ensure that we are not having 18-wheelers that are not able to navigate the construction zone because when we do have an incident there, it shuts down the entire interstate in that direction for hours and hours.”