May 2, 2019—Two crashes that took four lives have resurrected concerns about the safety of a bypass in New Town, N.D., and the issue of truck driver fatigue.
The Highway 23 bypass, dubbed the New Town Truck Reliever Route, was constructed in 2014 to ease truck traffic traveling through Main Street. The road, which cost $25 million, was meant to enhance roadway safety in the region.
Crash data from the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute shows the majority of truck-involved injury crashes in North Dakota occur in the oil region, reported AP News.
From 2012-16, around 67 percent of truck-related crashes happened in North Dakota’s oil counties. There’s been nationwide focus in recent years to improve truck safety, including a 2017 order that commercial truck drivers keep an electronic logbook to record the hours they work.
