A Florida Department of Transportation report released Thursday determined that The Florida Highway Patrol needs to do a better job of catching speeders on the Buckman Bridge. The average speed is 72 mph, which is 11 percent above the posted limit.
State transportation officials looked at crash data from 2009 to 2014 and determined the Buckman Bridge doesn’t have any design flaws. The study began after a fatal accident last year when a truck with 48-year-old William Maddox fell from the bridge.
In the five-year period studied, six people died in accidents on the Buckman. But, the report says the deaths and other accidents are not because of the bridge’s design — instead, driver error is the leading cause.
During that same five-year period, two vehicles went over the bridge’s barriers, which the report says meet national and state standards.
The report gives two main recommendations for increasing bridge safety.
First, better speed-limit enforcement on the Buckman. And second, a notification system could be installed to tell drivers about crashes or speed reductions ahead.
