Recent I-95 wrecks highlight truck parking shortage in Coastal Georgia

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A fatal crash on Interstate 95 in Liberty County began when a tractor-trailer driver pulled onto the shoulder for a restroom break, according to a Georgia State Patrol incident report.

The driver told troopers she had stopped and was climbing back into the driver’s seat when she felt the crash.

The crash, among two other recent serious crashes in McIntosh County, is renewing attention on what truck drivers and industry researchers describe as a national truck parking shortage that forces drivers to stop on shoulders and ramps.

Federal hours-of-service regulations limit driving time and require a 10-hour off-duty break. Drivers now track those hours with electronic logging devices, which supporters say leave little flexibility when time expires.

Dan Murray, senior vice president of the American Transportation Research Institute, said in a statement that truck parking has ranked the No. 1 concern for drivers in four of the institute’s past five annual surveys.

Murray said institute research found drivers spend an average of 56 minutes a day searching for authorized parking, equating to about $7,200 a year in lost pay, as drivers cut trips short to find a legal space.

“I-95 is the most congested freight corridor in the country,” Murray said. “There are very few legal authorized options for parking. So trucks are forced to park on shoulders and ramps.”

Lewie Pugh, executive director of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and a driver since 1994, said there is about one safe parking space for every 11 trucks on the road. He said drivers who cannot find parking face a choice between violating hours-of-service rules or parking in an unsafe location.

“You got an hour or two left on your logs. You come to a truck stop or rest area,” Pugh said.

“You drive through there. There’s nowhere to park. So your only option is to get back on the highway and try to go farther to the next stop ... And then what eventually happens is you don’t find anything, you run out of time. So you end up having to park somewhere unsafe.”

Pugh said congestion is especially acute near ports, warehouses and urban areas along I-95 from Miami to Maine. He said efforts to build a truck stop in the Savannah area about four or five years ago failed after local opposition.

“The whole Savannah area, they were trying to build a truck stop there four or five years ago, and they left and gave it up because of the NIMBYs,” Pugh said in reference to a 2021 truck stop proposition in Effingham County.

“We can’t have it both ways. We cannot have stocked store shelves and the goods and the products we want and not have trucks.”

Luis Alfonso, a long-haul driver who runs I-95 from Florida to New Jersey and west to Wisconsin, said the stretch of I-95 north from Jacksonville to Savannah offers almost no place to stop after 8 or 9 p.m. He said South Carolina and North Carolina have rest areas about every 40 miles, while northbound Georgia does not.

“It’s a lot of accidents because we don’t have a place to park,” Alfonso said. “At the end of the day, when you stop, you almost die. Mentally, you know?”

Alfonso said parking in retail lots often brings tickets or towing, and parking on shoulders risks citations from troopers.

The Commercial Vehicle Enforcement division of the Georgia Department of Public Safety said it is patrolling illegal parking hotspots, speaking with drivers about restrictions and alternatives, and placing message-board trailers to discourage illegal parking. The agency said it allows truck parking at inspection stations at night to accommodate overflow.

“Providing drivers with safer places to stop and take required rest breaks is an important part of protecting both commercial vehicle drivers and other motorists,” the agency said in a statement.

Federal officials have described the shortage as a national safety concern. Murray said ATRI is under contract with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to build a truck parking return-on-investment calculator to help state transportation departments evaluate expansion projects.

A proposed $755 million federal truck parking grant program, included in highway funding legislation before Congress as part of the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, would provide competitive grants for new capacity. Pugh said the bill has cleared committee three times but has not received a House floor vote.

Alfonso urged motorists to give trucks space.

“Respect the semi-truck,” he said. “We are still working.”