ATLANTA – Metro Atlanta could get a taste of winter weather on Friday, and the state is preparing in ways you might not imagine.
Officer Corey Cochran of the Department of Public Safety’s Motor Carrier Compliance Division is watching for trucks that are not supposed to be inside I-285.
“Sometimes I can see the tag, see if it's an out-of-state tag,” says Officer Cochran from his spot on an interstate overpass.Commuter Dude Jerry Carnes joined Cochran as the officer spotted a Mississippi tag traveling in one of the outside lanes of Interstate 20 where big rigs are not supposed to travel. Officer Cochran questioned the driver, and discovered he was traveling to South Carolina. Since he had no deliveries in Atlanta, by law the trucker was not supposed to travel inside I-285.
Another big rig driver traveling from Tennessee to North Carolina was also by supposed to go around Atlanta.“I missed my exit and rerouted,” the driver tells Cochran. “It (GPS) took me this way.”
Officers with the Georgia Motor Carrier Compliance Division enforce the law year-round. In the winter they'll sometimes bring extra officers into Atlanta increase their efforts to keep trucks outside of I-285 in case the area gets we the worst of winter.
“When it starts icing over, the trucks can't stop in time,” says Officer Cochran. “It starts making more accidents, more traffic.”
Cochran tries to convince truckers that have no purpose inside I-285 that traveling around Atlanta's in-town traffic is actually faster.
