As a result of a letter from Lower Saucon Township and local fire officials late last year in which they expressed concerns about traffic safety at the intersection of Flint Hill Road and Rt. 412, PennDOT has approved implementation of a reduced gear and truck speed limit zone of 30 mph on Flint Hill Road, township manager Jack Cahalan told council Wednesday.
The news came in a letter from PennDOT Engineering District 5-0 Traffic Studies Signing Manager Chade T. Sankari dated April 6.
In it, Sankari referenced the two serious truck accidents that have occurred at the bottom of Flint Hill Road in the past three years in the letter, noting that they both involved trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds.
The new speed limit/reduced gear zone will apply to trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds.
The first accident occurred in May 2012, and resulted in one death as well as the destruction of the Leithsville fire station, which is on one side of the intersection.
In that accident, a police investigation concluded that a dump truck’s brakes had failed as it was traveling down Flint Hill. No criminal charges were filed.
A screen shot from a video of the rollover garbage truck accident that occurred at Flint Hill Road and Rt. 412 in Lower Saucon Township on Dec. 2, 2014.
A video surveillance camera mounted on the newly-rebuilt fire station captured the moment when the truck blew through the stop sign at Flint Hill Road and Rt. 412–narrowly missing cross traffic–as its driver attempted a turn and rolled the truck on top of a parked pickup truck next to the station. A utility pole was also taken out, but no one was seriously hurt in the crash.
In addition to the implementation of the speed limit change, Sankari said that as a result of a study that looked at “road geometry, crash history and safe running speed,” PennDOT will replace and erect “new traffic regulatory and warning signs along with pavement markings” at the intersection of Rt. 412 and Flint Hill.
The letter noted that the average downhill grade of Flint Hill is 7 percent, including an 1800 foot section that has an approximately 10 percent grade.
