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Some drivers blame left exit for truck crash

Commuters call the highway split where a tanker exploded Wednesday confusing.

By MELANIE AVE
Published March 31, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Commuter Ed Schatzman has one word for the left exit ramp off Interstate 275 into downtown where a truck driver from Zephyrhills died this week in a fiery explosion.

Treacherous.

"It's confusing," said Schatzman, 56. "If someone is going 65 or 70 miles per hour, there's a point of no return."

The accident, like the one four weeks ago in Atlanta that killed five Ohio baseball players, the bus driver and his wife, involved a left exit ramp. Investigators said the driver apparently mistook the ramp for a highway lane.

Left exits are an oddity on most interstate highways, where engineers usually keep them on the right to avoid driver confusion.

Many commuters struggled with a temporary left exit into Ybor City off Interstate 4 in Tampa before it was returned to the right side of the highway in August.

And the maze of lanes along Memorial Highway leading to left exits to State Road 60 and the Veterans Expressway is notorious for causing confusion.

In St. Petersburg, the exit in question is really the 1.3-mile-long Interstate 375 spur, which splits from I-275 and ends downtown. A similar exit to the south takes motorists to I-175.

About 10:40 p.m. Wednesday, Penn Tank lines driver Ronald Kennedy, 47, was southbound on I-275 to Sarasota with 12,000 gallons of diesel fuel when he lost control of his 1999 Freightliner and crashed into the ramp's barrier wall, officials say.

He died after the truck exploded, shooting flames 30 feet into the air, raining fuel into city sewers and scorching $500,000 in city equipment. All that was left of the truck were its charred remains.

Penn Tank Lines owner Jack McSherry called Kennedy an "exemplary driver of almost six years" in a written memo to employees on Friday.

"The cause of the accident is still under investigation," he wrote, "but when our safety professionals determine the cause we will do everything in our powers to strengthen our loss culture so a tragic event like this never happens again."

St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue Chief Jim Large said Kennedy apparently missed the highway split.

On southbound I-275, signs direct drivers to the split and caution them to slow from 65 mph to 50 mph as the left lane of the four-lane interstate becomes the downtown spur.

A large sign warns drivers that the exit is on the left nearly a mile before the split and another at 0.3 miles.

Schatzman takes the exit daily from his Pasco County home to his job at the AAA Auto Club South on First Avenue N.

"Almost every morning someone makes a last-minute decision and jerks back to go to the interstate or suddenly realizes they're on 375 and must slow down," he said. "It's concerned me for a long time."

He believes more signs are needed to alert drivers of the split and wonders if that would have prevented Kennedy's death.

Schatzman's co-worker, Kevin Bakewell, a senior vice president at AAA, said he too finds the left exit confusing.

"It is a very steep, sharp curve when you exit," he said. "If you're not paying attention to how fast you're going ... it can be a problem."

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins said the accident investigation is continuing. But he does not fault the exit.

He said it is well-marked and does not have an unusually high number of accidents. About 11,000 cars use the ramp daily.

"It's just a very terrible, tragic vehicle crash," Coggins said. "We may never know why he took this turn."

Ronald Kennedy had a clean driving record and drove trucks for about 15 years. He regularly traveled to Sarasota and South Florida.

Dorothy Kennedy, the driver's wife of 12 years, says another motorist may have cut off her husband, forcing him to take the ramp at a faster-than-normal speed.

"That's the only thing that I can think of," she said through tears. "He was a wonderful truck driver. Very courteous, very patient. He was always just so careful."

She also wonders if fatigue played a part since her husband regularly worked 14- and 16-hour days.

The I-375 exit into downtown will be closed for weeks for repairs that include replacing one span of the bridge and significant work on one of its supporting columns.

Dewayne Kile, the DOT's district design engineer, said most highway exits are on the right side of the road "to provide driver expectation."

But regardless of where the exits are, many drivers procrastinate, he said.

"A lot of times," Kile said, "no matter the signs or the reasons, a lot of people wait until the last minute to get in the lane they need to be in."

Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Melanie Ave can be reached at mave@sptimes.com or 727 893-8813.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 23:01:02]