A recent four-day “blitz” by state police targeting trucks using Route 90 in Aurora proved very successful, and members of a Finger Lakes grassroots group wants the state to keep up the pressure on trucking companies. “It’s going to take care of the problem for a little while,” state police Sgt. Jeffrey Stahl told members of the Upstate Safety...
State police pull a truck over on Rt. 90 in Union Springs near the fire station on July 27. The stop was part of a four-day "blitz" by state police targeting trucks using that road.A recent four-day “blitz” by state police targeting trucks using Route 90 in Aurora proved very successful, and members of a Finger Lakes grassroots group wants the state to keep up the pressure on trucking companies.
“It’s going to take care of the problem for a little while,” state police Sgt. Jeffrey Stahl told members of the Upstate Safety Task Force when the group met Thursday in Aurora.
Stahl is part of the commercial traffic enforcement division for Troop E in Canandaigua.
“We tend to move around,” he said. “They don’t know where we’re going to be, and that makes a big difference.”
Stahl said that by the last day of the traffic detail, troopers had no trucks to stop.
He even said just having troopers from the commercial division visible in the area could go a long way to keeping the big trucks off the road as drivers alert other drivers by radio. He said the traffic division, which has 10 troopers to cover a 10-county area, will continue the stepped-up inspections.
Stahl said residents should contact his division directly at 585-398-4150 to report problems with truck traffic. The division won’t respond to specific complaints but will use the information from callers to determine traffic patterns and to decide where enforcement details are needed.
“It doesn’t make sense for us to come out here and sit here at 2 o’clock in the afternoon for a week and we get nothing when the trucks are coming at 6,” Stahl said.
The local task force has been pressuring the state for decades to control long-haul trucks – many carrying garbage from the New York City area – cutting through the Finger Lakes to reach the private Seneca Meadows landfill in Seneca Falls.
Reach John Stith at jstith@syracuse.com or 251-5718.