Many residents along the State Highways in Otsego County have noticed a tremendous increase in heavy vehicle commercial traffic over the past several months. This traffic appears to be through in nature since there are no observable local deliveries being made. This heavy vehicle traffic is concerning since several accidents and breakdowns involving vehicles owned by the company XNG over the past ten months on our curvy, hilly, shoulder-less roads, have left trucks in the middle of the lane of travel with limited sight distance, resulting in dangerous situations for unsuspecting drivers who happen upon the disabled vehicles.

A portion of State Highway 205 in Hartwick was closed to traffic three times in five months due to incidents involving these large XNG trucks. To make matters worse, these trucks are carrying compressed natural gas, which under the right circumstances, could be explosive.The most recent accident on July 11, 2018 caused the evacuation of homes in a densely populated area by Schuyler Lake, while an enormous amount of combustible natural gas was pumped into the air.

We are requesting that the New York State Department of Transportation conduct a traffic count of heavy commercial vehicles on New York State Highways 205, 28 and 80, as well as an engineering study to determine if the highway was originally designed and built to accommodate the increase in volume of heavy commercial vehicle through traffic that has been apparent in the past several months. We would also like to see a mobile weigh station installed where the trucks exit onto 205 from 88 in Oneonta. More than 90 trucks pass our homes on a daily basis. We are concerned for the safety of the community and the drivers.