It was a sight to behold! Thursday afternoon in Atlanta a tractor trailer carrying particle board overturned on the 285 southbound exit ramp from I-20 eastbound on the west side of town. The tractor flipped over. The trailer literally exploded blowing chunks of board and other debris across 285 below the overpass and shutting down the ramp. Within about 15 minutes traffic backed up over 11 miles on 285 all the way past the Cobb Cloverleaf! Over 11 miles! Vehicles on I-20 eastbound came to a stop near 6 Flags.
This happened about 3:00 P.M. Thursday. At 3:50 P.M. the people at the scene gave “notice to proceed” as a TRIP event. 61 minutes later all lanes on 285 and the exit ramp were re-opened! Simply amazing. And your tax dollars at work! TRIP stands for “Towing Recovery Incentive Program.” It’s a program from the Traffic Incident Management Enhancement (TIME) Task Force funded through a grant from the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA). It trains and certifies tow truck operators in quick clearance and provides a cash bonus for their efforts. Had there been no TRIP program it would have taken hours to clear that interchange. And though the delays on 285 were substantial the “TIME” it took to take your TRIP home Thursday afternoon was substantially reduced. And that’s your bonus!
accidents
Sometimes there are times when you should not spend any time in a car, truck or on a motorcycle. Case in point: Tuesday afternoon in Roswell. A man driving his SUV southbound on Ga.400 at speeds over 120mph wrapped it around a bridge abutment at 
Holcomb Bridge in the middle of the day! Today in the newspaper investigators say the driver had been arguing with his wife before she left on a trip out of Hartsfield-Jackson. Anger can so color your judgement that you make bad judgements about your next course of action. I know. My anger got the better of me on the road early last year. And 7 months worth of traffic court dates is what I now consider anger management. I don’t ever want to go through that again. All because I got mad. Not “Madman” mad. Just a mad, man. Anger is misplaced at the wheel. In the case of that Roswell man Tuesday afternoon his anger cashed a check his driving abilities couldn’t cover.
