Reported by: Hagit Limor
Photographed by: Anthony Mirones
It's a deadly development that won Kentucky federal funds to fight it: a stretch of highway in Northern Kentucky that's one of two hot spots for accidents involving trucks and regular cars.
But the I-Team found the reason for all those wrecks is not what most of us would assume.
It's a reason that could be just as deadly if you live in Kentucky, Ohio or Indiana.
Ask most drivers what we think of semis and oversized trucks and people complain about big rigs hogging the road, cutting them off, taking up more lanes than necessary.
Well, folks, the truth hurts. The enemy is us.
(Clip from movie)
For many of the driving public, this is the image we have: that crazed truck driver putting the rest of us at risk.
But the truth is as glaring as the sun in your windshield: 72% of all accidents involving commercial vehicles are caused by regular, noncommercial cars.
That's you and me.
The I-Team followed Officer Pete Wilson with Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement as he stopped cars following trucks too closely.
"If that tractor was to stop or have a blowout, you wouldn't have been able to stop," he tells one driver.
Trooper Pete Wilson says in his ten years patrolling, he's seen some of the worst wrecks right here.
"The stretch on 71/75 to the bridge, it's horrifying some of the stuff you see, where these people get hit by these tractor trailers, is just terrible," said Wilson. "You don't win when you go up against an 80,000 pound vehicle."
Bill King should know. "Size in this case matters," he says.
King is a truck escort, the guy who travels in front or behind those wide, oversized and super loads most of us just see as nuisances to pass.
"We're the eyes of that truck driver," says King.
The I-Team rode with King one full day, watching drivers tailgate or cut off the big load, in this case a concrete bridge beam.
Sometimes, King says, loads weigh up to one million pounds.
"Cut off a load, and you can cause it to jackknife. Somebody could die," says King.
King says drivers have gotten so aggressive they scare him. He's seen close calls.
One time, he says, "If the car had not found its brakes, they'd have found their maker."
Officer Wilson echoes what he's witnessed: "People, they follow way too close to the vehicles. They cut each other off. They speed."
But now, Officer Wilson has a new tool in his arsenal.
The state has designated the Northern Kentucky corridor from the Ohio River to where I-71 and I-75 split for a yearlong crackdown, funded by Uncle Sam, targeting "aggressive driving."
"We want to try and save lives," says Thad Sullivan, a program manager with Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement.
He says the department hopes more tickets means better awareness.
"We're just not looking at a reduction in the number of deaths," says Sullivan. "We're also looking at a changed behavior."
Sullivan says drivers have to do what King might call his job description: to save us from ourselves.
"It could be your family. It could be my family," says Sullivan. "It's just not the person that driving aggressively who runs the risk of dying aggressively."
As part of this campaign, you may see highway signs and even some trucks with the message "Leave more space."
Kentucky is one of four states trying this pilot project, funded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
