Trucker faces $12K fine for using residential road in Allegheny Township during Route 356 closure

The reopening of Route 356 in Allegheny Township on Tuesday arrived too late for one trucker.

Police Chief Duane Fisher told township supervisors at Monday’s meeting that the trucker tried to take a tractor-trailer rig down White Cloud Road earlier in the day despite posted warning signs.

“He is now going to be buying about $12,600 worth of stock in the Commonwealth,” Fisher quipped, referring to the total fine the trucker faces.

He said the fines are for disobeying traffic signals, basically the signs warning of the road closure and posted weight limits on White Cloud Road. The road is often narrow and winding, through mainly residential areas not designed for such traffic.

The trucker was driving a rig with a load originating in Los Angeles and bound for Hyde Park, Fisher said.

A township police officer tried to pull the trucker over but was unable to get his attention. Finally, he was stopped in the 2000 block of White Cloud between Armstrong and Hulton roads, Fisher said. The chief said fire departments from the township, as well as Buffalo Township and Freeport, responded in helping to get the truck turned around.

The driver had to back onto a side road and retrace his trip back to Route 356.

First, however, Washington Township police were called in because the department has scales; police weighed the truck.

Fisher said it weighed in at 70,000 pounds — 50,000 pounds over the limit.

Police: Don’t speed on Route 356

With the reopening of Route 356, truckers won’t have to worry about taking the wrong route at least until April, when construction on the road will resume.

Fisher said truckers going down White Cloud had been an ongoing problem during the construction mainly because they become focused on their GPS devices and not reading the signs posted.

Speaking of the pending steep fine the trucker or his company face, Supervisor Jamie Morabito said: “That should send a message, and we’ll be doing it again in April.”

Meanwhile, Fisher warned that his department will be cracking down on speeders traveling Route 356.

“We are going to have dedicated details, and we are going to hit it hard,” he said.

The speed limit is 45 mph, but Fisher said that is something some drivers ignore. He said he personally wrote 14 speeding tickets along the road in a span of seven hours.