FHP: At least 9 dead in wrecks on I-75 in Gainesville

Lets face it, staffing at FHP is a joke. The media should demand to know how many Troopers were working the Interstate that night. There is no way one or two Troopers can close down the Interstate no matter what the reason is.

How many more people have to die, before the State of Florida wakes up and staffs the Interstate with the correct amount of Troopers per mile?

The media is looking to blame someone. The truth is if you close a major Interstate down without the proper staffing traffic is only going to be grid locked at the first exit without help with detour routes.

If you have 18 wheelers running in fog and smoke at 80 mph on cruise control this is what happens. If you have no Troopers to respond to the crashes on the Interstate with roadblock and injures sooner or later some drunk, some speeder or someone texting on their cell phone with crash into the crash blocking the Interstate.

The quicker you have a Trooper respond to the scene that faster the situation can be taken under control.

When there are no crashes, Troopers can be slowing people down by issuing speeding tickets and taking impaired drivers off of the Interstate and keeping an eye out for illegal drugs and illegal immigrant smugglers.

When you have one or two Troopers covering several counties how dare you blame FHP when we have been screaming for more help for at least a decade. One Trooper on one side of a county has no idea how foggy it may be on the other side of county.

Backups create traffic crashes it is a statistical fact. We need to have the proper ratio of Troopers to miles on the Interstate especially in busy areas.

We cannot continue to cut road Troopers, cut pay, cut road rangers, cut the dot response teams.

Doing more with less does not work!

We need more Troopers on the Highway to deal with these issues quickly and decisively the citizens need to demand to know what type of protection is out there. We pay taxes and deserve more Troopers out there. No more smoke and mirrors we need facts.

Find another state that has so few State Troopers on the Interstates getting paid at such low wages.

This is another major black eye for the State of Florida. Come to Florida and spend all your money at Disney and the beaches, Sorry for the lack of protection and services on the Interstates and major roads the State wanted to save money.

Yep! Florida sucks you got that right! Its a free for all out there on the highways!

Other States just as bad and it's the driving public the doesn't get it. :|

Hello! Anyone paying attention? If you have only Two Troopers working the entire county it may be nice and clear at one end of the Interstate and full of fog and smoke a mile down the road.

How can two Troopers cover 50 miles of Interstate?

The state cut, and cut FHP when they should of doubled the size of Troopers covering the Interstate. Go ahead and take a drive after 10 PM on the Interstate in your County and count the Troopers. The state cut them down to nothing and then want to blame FHP when the $&!# hit the fan.

The faster you can clear out crashes and close down and Interstate with proper staffing the safer our citizens will be. The Trooper he have working are outstanding but you cannot expect two Troopers to be able to close down the entire Interstate. I know some will say call the Sheriffs Office for help, guess what? They have alarm calls to cover and citizens to assist in their areas as well.

If you want to attract tourist and jobs to the state we can at least provide them with the best paid and best trained and best staffed Highway Patrol, in stead of trying to save a few bucks and costing the lives of innocent people.

We can do better Florida, lets get to work hire more Troopers. Most city police departments have more officer in their small city then we have Troopers for the entire State.

Refer to the jurisdictional study completed last year, We need more Troopers in all counties with Interstate systems. What action was taken? Let see how many positions the state cuts from FHP this year.

I welcome an investigation, I am sure no one will believe how few Troopers are on the road.

Hello! Anyone paying attention? If you have only Two Troopers working the entire county it may be nice and clear at one end of the Interstate and full of fog and smoke a mile down the road.

How can two Troopers cover 50 miles of Interstate?

The state cut, and cut FHP when they should of doubled the size of Troopers covering the Interstate. Go ahead and take a drive after 10 PM on the Interstate in your County and count the Troopers. The state cut them down to nothing and then want to blame FHP when the $&!# hit the fan.

The faster you can clear out crashes and close down and Interstate with proper staffing the safer our citizens will be. The Trooper he have working are outstanding but you cannot expect two Troopers to be able to close down the entire Interstate. I know some will say call the Sheriffs Office for help, guess what? They have alarm calls to cover and citizens to assist in their areas as well.

If you want to attract tourist and jobs to the state we can at least provide them with the best paid and best trained and best staffed Highway Patrol, in stead of trying to save a few bucks and costing the lives of innocent people.

We can do better Florida, lets get to work hire more Troopers. Most city police departments have more officer in their small city then we have Troopers for the entire State.

Refer to the jurisdictional study completed last year, We need more Troopers in all counties with Interstate systems. What action was taken? Let see how many positions the state cuts from FHP this year.

I welcome an investigation, I am sure no one will believe how few Troopers are on the road.

Simple, do like other countries. Go to a national Police, then you would not have these problems. Just think of the money saved since their would be no duplication of work. :|

Basic driving skills are not in place any more. If you can't see the roadway due to conditions pull off as far as you can with your hazards on. “Common Sense,” is lacking in today’s drivers. All good drivers, Should drive “Defensively.” One never knows when a situation will change. We do not live in a perfect world. As such, Expect the, “Unexpected” and drive, “Defensively, ” not rocket science here and you just may save your own, LIFE.” :|

3 November 2002, Los Angeles County Ca; 216 Vehicle Crash due to dense fog; 0 Killed 41 Injured.

14 February 2010; Kansas City Mo; I-70 100 + car pile up, including two greyhound buses, No fatal or critical injuries reported.

1 December 2011, Sumner County Tn; 176 Vehicle Chain Reaction Crash due to Heavy Fog; 1 Killed 16 injured,

Above I have listed just a couple of multivehicle crashes but there is a theme if you look. Other multivehicle crashes with hundreds of cars have occurred around this country that result is very little death.

Now we have our Florida incident.
January 29 2012; Alachua Co Florida; 17 Vehicle Chain reaction Crash due rapid visibility deterioration results in 11 Killed and 21 Injured. So Florida has a 20 car crash that kills 11 people????

What was the cause here? Lack of adequate manpower and staff shortages for FHP? The FHP has had manpower cuts by the Legislator every year; the Govenor’s office budget to run his personal staff is bigger than FHP’s budget; so is it the Florida Legislator's fault. Is it lack of driver training funding to schools to improve driver education? Is it lack of enforcement or lack of erected warning signs over the interstate? Could it be the court system that slaps bad drivers on the wrist and refuses to place points on their license so they can be suspended if their bad behavior continues? Could there have been alcohol or fatigue involved or could it simply be poor driving habits and speed ?

There are many areas of focus that will be looked at before this investigation is over. However to simply try and place blame on the FHP, FHP supervisors, or FHP policies is simply wrong. I feel certain when the road was opened there were no visibility issues on the highway at that time. You can’t tell the future and FHP can not be all and do all.
The FHP spokesman said in an interview that he did not want to play the what if game. What if a 100 foot sinkhole opened up after the roadway was opened and 21 cars fell in? What if a freak tornado came across I-75? You can see how silly the “what if” scenarios could get.

If you are reading the so call “news” papers or watching the “news” shows and passing judgment I can guaranty that more than 90% that is being put out by them is to sensationalize the event so they can sell more newspaper copies, has nothing to do with facts. When they can get all the goodie out of this story they move on like the bunch of piranhas that they are. They will never come back and say that they reported without all the fact!

This is a tragic event but every highway death is tragic. 2371 people died on Florida’s roadways last year and over the last 10 years there have been over 25,000 people who have died on Florida’s roadways. Are they all FHP’s fault like this incident seems to be portrayed?

Nice, post!

According to an article in the news paper the State Legislatures, are submitting a bill to add more warning signs and cameras to the stretch of I-75 where the fatalities occurred.

This is typical response from Florida State Legislatures. We need more skilled Troopers patrolling the Interstates and less Troopers working parking lot crashes.

It is pretty hard to see anything on a camera in the smoke and fog. We already see how people slow down for construction speed signs. You can put up a hundred signs without the Troopers on the Interstate to write the citations what good are the sign?

What good are cameras if you see fog and smoke but then have no Troopers to close and shut the Interstate down?

Look at the Dallas Cowboys, they have the best signs and cameras in the business in their stadium but without players on the field playing the game and taking control what good are they?

More Troopers on the Interstate equals less speeders, less traffic crashes, less time a crash blocks the Interstate.

You can have all the signs and cameras in the world. But if you do not have Troopers out working the interstate, those drunk drivers are still going to cause crashes.

So please contract you state legislatures, and tell them we need more Troopers spend the states money wisely. Cameras can show you what is about to happen, having Troopers out working the Interstate can stop it from happening.

Two Troopers in a County working from 10pm to 6AM DOES NOT CUT IT.

Just Saying.