A Simple Solution to Dangerous Highway Debris

by John Schneidawind, ARTBA vice president of public affairs, and Beth McGinn, ARTBA vice president of communications

You see it all the time obstructing the nation’s crowded highways—a plastic bumper, a bloated deer carcass, a massive, shredded tire.

Highway debris is more than just a momentary distraction. It’s a constant danger to motorists and the workers whose job it is to remove it.

That’s why a simple device called “LaneBlade®” from J-Tech of Chester Springs, Pa., is such an epiphany. A cross between snowplow and forklift, LaneBlades® are fast catching on with state departments of transportation across the country.

Primarily known for two decades as a manufacturer of TMAs (truck-mounted attenuators), J-Tech has discovered that LaneBlade® is a much-needed addition to its product line.

“We build TMAs for the Pennsylvania Turnpike and have been doing that for a number of years,” said Fred Bergstresser, J-Tech’s marketing and business development manager. “And they came to us and asked us to make something to help them get the deer carcasses off the road.”

“I think they had 600 deer hit in one month—the month of October this past year—and that’s pretty much a routine every year, and they needed something to push the deer off the road,” Bergstresser said. “We came up with the LaneBlade®, and that’s our newest safety device.”

J-Tech custom-made three for the Turnpike Authority—one for the Pocono Mountains, one for western Pennsylvania and one for Philadelphia. The agency liked the device so much they’ve outfitted their safety patrol vehicle fleet. “They must have 24, 25 of them now,” he said.

Previously, road maintenance crews had little choice on clogged highways but to come to a rolling stop, halt traffic and run out to pull an object off the road.

“But that’s dangerous because you’re slowing down traffic and creating another problem of people queuing behind that,” Bergstresser said, which can cause rear-end crashes. “The other way that you get debris off the road is the worker just runs out of the road, looks for traffic, and grabs it.”

Tragically last spring, a young highway worker in Arkansas went out into traffic to retrieve a shovel and was struck by a car. Since that time, the Arkansas Department of Transportation has purchased 13 LaneBlades® and has applied for a federal grant to purchase additional units.

Unfortunately, this tragedy was not an isolated incident. A study by AAA’s Foundation for Traffic Safety found that between 2011 and 2014, road debris was a factor in a total of more than 200,000 police-reported crashes, resulting in roughly 39,000 injuries and 500 deaths. More than one in three debris-related crashes happen between 10 a.m. and 3:59 p.m., when people are hauling things like furniture or construction equipment.

Bergstresser says the LaneBlade® is a hydraulic device equipped with two steel wings folded back on each side. “But when they want to get debris off the road, (the operators) push a button, the wings come forward, it drops down and then they go to the debris and just push it off the road.”

As word spreads in transportation circles, Bergstresser finds himself answering more and more questions about the LaneBlade®, both at home in the U.S. and abroad in Brazil, Australia, Taiwan and Europe.

“No life is worth a deer carcass or shovel,” he said.