KYTC District 6 asking drivers to ‘partner for safety’ | News

BOONE COUNTY, KY (FOX19)  - According to Dan Robinson, storm chaser and photojournalist, “Road icing is more likely to threaten your life than any other weather condition you’ll ever face.”  Accidents due to winter road conditions account for twice as many fatalities as from tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning, and severe thunderstorms combined.

“Each and every one of us who drives a vehicle is in charge of our own safety,” said Rob Hans, chief district engineer for the Northern Kentucky District 6 Office of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.  “It’s just this simple, drivers should be very cautious when traveling on wet or icy pavement.

“We are asking people to partner with us to make our roads crash-free,” Nancy Wood, the district’s information officer said. “During winter storm events, our maintenance workers do their part to fight adverse road conditions; we need you to do yours.”

District 6 covers over 4,500 lane miles of highway and interstate pavement in the eleven counties:  Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Harrison, Kenton, Owen, Pendleton and Robertson. Crews are on duty 24/7 when there is a major weather event. However, just your everyday cold mornings and misty, rainy days are not major weather events, and do not call for chemical treatment of the roadways. Wood said, “Temperatures quite often are at or below the freezing mark all throughout the winter months, and it is simply unrealistic to expect that every spot of ice should be continuously treated with chemicals during these times.”

Drivers can learn from information gathered by highway safety analysts. “There are things we can do to increase the likelihood that we will be crash-free drivers,” said Wood.  “They fall into two categories: vehicle hazards and road hazards.”

In the Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Kenton and Campbell, District 6 is responsible for 1,821 lane miles of roadway. Crews have stockpiled 15,500 tons of salt and over 26,000 gallons of salt brine for de-icing in the three counties. Sixty-two trucks are available for snow and ice removal – three of which will concentrate solely on the “Cut in the Hill”, the six mile section of I-75 between Buttermilk Pike and the Brent Spence Bridge.