Towamencin residents want ban on truckers cutting through neighborhood

Towamencin, Pa. (WTXF) - There's a push to get truckers off one road in Montgomery County. Residents say it's too dangerous, especially because of a certain curve in the road.

Cell phone video shows the kind of truck Towamencin residents say come up and down Derstine Road between Allentown and Clemens Road all hours of the day and night.

"My house rattles at night when the trucks go by," said Denise Marnien who lives at Derstine and Kimberly Way.

Neighbor call that part of the road a dangerous curve.

"It gets backed up and here there's accidents," she said. Marnien is also concerned for children including her oldest two 7-year-old Annalise and 9-year-old Matthew. They catch the school bus along this road.

"At the bus stop sometimes we go like this and the trucks honk at us because that's all you can hear because so many come by. It also causes the bus to be late," said Matthew. Towamencin township officials along with police in February tried a 90-day temporary ban of trucks on the road.

"It is very scary," said Jackie Swanson. She has attended many meetings to push for a permanent ban on the trucks.

"It is a dangerous road for trucks that they do tend to have to cross the center line to be able to make that turn," she said. Swanson believes truckers prefer Derstine Road as a short cut despite it being narrow and residential.

"Because they typically would take Forty Foot Road where there is a number of lights, speed restrictions to 25 mph and a school zone," she said. Township Manager Rob Ford says a traffic study has been done but they have to get another township on board to move forward.

"Since the road we're talking about, Derstine Road, it goes off Allentown in Towamencin and also proceeds through an adjacent township, Hatfield Township we have to work together if we're going to restrict trucks on that road," he said.

Towamencin Board of Supervisors was supposed to take up the issue during a meeting tonight but they're still waiting to hear from Hatfield Township on whether they agree to the ban based on the traffic study. The next step would be to draft an ordinance and bring it back on a public agenda.