Gravel haulers - dangerous

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
June 17, 2010

Yesterday, as I drove to Crystal Lake, I saw a dangerous condition on U.S. 14 at Lily Pond Road, just southeast of Woodstock - actually, right at the City Limit.

A westbound gravel hauler semi had stopped in the westbound lane in front of the old La Tejanita Restaurant. A long line of cars and trucks was lined up behind it. On Lily Pond Road a gravel hauler was waiting to turn left onto U.S. 14. Unfortunately, a continual stream of eastbound traffic on U.S. 14 prevented the truck on Lily Pond from making its left turn.

The driver of the westbound truck was waiting, so that his buddy from the Merryman mining operation could make his turn. Apparently, he cared not a wit whether he was impeding traffic. After all, who is going to argue with a gravel hauler?

Hopefully, the Woodstock Police will start monitoring this violation. It's not likely that it only happened in front of me.

If you see a violation like this, report it to the Woodstock Police Department. This would be an ideal violation for the motorcycle units to enforce. It's at the City Limit, though, and not a location probably patrolled very often. Also, I appreciate that they cannot sit there and wait for it to happen again.

If it's recurring, though, they could pay a little visit on the gravel pit operator and ask him to inform drivers not to block the highway to "help out" their buddies. All the operator can do is ask, because the drivers are probably independent haulers and not employees of Merryman.