Storm Data Ignored by NH Highway Foreman

[Chemisse]

A Department of Transportation employee at the heart of a $2.5 million lawsuit accusing the state of failing to plow Interstate 93 said in a deposition that he ignores reports from the field during winter storms and doesn't trust electronic data on weather, traffic volume and speed.

Frank Qualey, a highway patrol foreman, oversaw snow plowing from Manchester to Salem on Valentine's Day in 2007 when a Canadian logging truck jackknifed near Exit 4 in Londonderry and hit a nearby car, instantly killing 6-year-old Brendon Mahoney of Derry.

The boy's mother, Kimberly Kyle, said she watched as the truck landed on top of her Chevrolet Aveo, crushing her son and dragging the car for nearly the length of a football field.

In (a deposition), Qualey said he ignores sensor data sent directly to state plowing sheds with information on precipitation, wind speed, direction, traffic speed and volume.

He said he doesn't trust the information and doesn't remember if he consulted it in the hours leading up to Mahoney's death, according to court records. Qualey said he also ignores information sent back to the state shed from crews driving the highway to report on weather and road conditions. He said he is unfamiliar with codes used by the patrols.

"I don't even listen to them half the time to be honest," he said in the deposition. "You know, I don't listen to it."

Qualey said he instead makes judgments on road conditions from inside his truck while driving along the highway.

In the deposition, he said sanding causes the road to be more slippery during snow storms.

"Well, if you have sand on the ground and you try to stop, you don't stop as well," Qualey said in the deposition.

In other depositions, state troopers working in the area said the highway was like an "ice rink" about the time of the crash. Records show the police called for sand and salt on the highway more than a dozen times in the hours leading up to the crash but never saw a DOT truck in the area.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091124/FRONTPAGE/911240305/1001/RSS01



I just hope this guy gets fired before this snow season.

[Chemisse]

1. Where did they find this guy?

I'm surprised he doesn't just wet his finger and stick up to the wind to plan his snowplowing schedules.

[Mopar151]

2. Ain't got the sense that Gawd give a goose....

I spent 3 winters commuting on this bobsled run. My co-workers would ask 'How was the ride in?"

"State lost the keys to the goddamit salt truck agin'!"

No foolin' - I'd start out in the lower corner of the Lakes Region, going to Salem - and the road conditions, traffic, and ability/curtosey of my fellow drivers steadily deteriorated as I went south.

[Chemisse]

3. I commuted from Plymouth to Nashua for 2 years

And I agree with how it gets worse as you go south. Part of it is sheer traffic volume though.