“I-75 and other highways are at their capacity,” Hutchinson wrote in an email Saturday. “If you had a truck corridor, it certainly would have helped out.”Īlachua County Commissioner Robert Hutchinson said improving safety in I-75 will take comprehensive changes. One of the suggestions we made was to have an all-truck lane,” Surrency said. “They just need to do what we provided them. Hawthorne Mayor Matt Surrency, who was on the task force, said Saturday that the state should act on the recommendations to make I-75 safer. The connector would be a expansion of the Suncoast Parkway through western Marion and Alachua counties to connect with Interstate 10 near Lake City. But even with that, the idea was floated for a “Coastal Connector” after Hurricane Irma evacuees brought northbound I-75 to a standstill. The I-75 Relief Task Force spent about a year studying the problems and ultimately recommended improvements to the highway rather than building a new road. The crash may once again spur discussion of building a new road through Alachua and Marion counties, which residents of neither county want, to divert traffic off I-75. All of the dead and seven of the injured were members of Avoyelles House of Mercy in Marksville, Louisiana. The passenger van overturned.įive children who had been in the van were killed, along the drivers of both heavy trucks. Both vehicles broke through the guardrail in the median, crossing into southbound lanes where they struck another semi and a passenger van. On Thursday, a semi headed north on I-75 north of Gainesville collided with another vehicle. Heavy trucks are part of the reason, state and federal data show. It also was the first time in at least 15 years where there were more fatalities in Alachua County than in neighboring - and more populous - Marion County, where traffic deaths generally have been declining. It continues a growing trend of fatal accidents in the area.Ĭrashes crashes in 2017 killed 55 people in Alachua County, the most in a decade and a 52 percent increase over the 10-year average. Two others died Thursday in separate crashes, making it the single deadliest day in Alachua County since a pile-up in the fog on Interstate 75 killed 11 in January 2012. Seven people died in the fiery I-75 crash Thursday. You throw the volume in there and sooner or later somebody’s going to get hurt, and that’s what happened.” People were swerving, tailgating and just being very aggressive. “The stretch between Interstate 10 and Gainesville was madness. Once they get to the state line, it’s like a NASCAR race because people generally know there is not going to be any state trooper presence on I-75 on the Florida side,” Quarles said. “Every year everybody can expect a lot of state troopers in South Georgia. Quarles made the trip during the Christmas holiday and said the interstate was more crowded than usual. GAINESVILLE - Nashville resident Mark Quarles said he and his wife make the drive from Tennessee to the Orlando area on Interstate 75 several times a year to visit family, and he has noticed how speeding increases once motorists cross into Florida, particularly from Lake City south.
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