In 2015, Gene McConnell, Pendleton County Commission president, approached the office of United States Representative Alex Mooney. He requested any help possible in providing major safety upgrades along the most dangerous curves on the eastward facing slope of Allegheny Mountain where United States Route 33 clings to the side of the steep ridge, curving in several places. After the close of McConnell’s tenure, Rick Gillespie, Pendleton County Emergency Services coordinator, opened a long-term campaign addressing the West Virginia Department of Transportation. His message has been consistent. Without infrastructure that will arrest the gravity-spurred speed of an out-of-control tractor trailer or other large vehicle, at some point there will be significant loss of life.
Last Thursday night, a tractor trailer overturned on Horseshoe Curve after losing control. While, fortunately, there was no loss of life, “the driver suffered injuries and was transported to Grant Memorial Hospital in Petersburg by Pendleton County Emergency Rescue, North Fork Unit.”
A Facebook release from the Pendleton County Office of Emergency Management explained that “the rig crossed the oncoming lane and overturned as it struck the guardrails, splitting open the box trailer, while coming to rest on its side.”
In repeated past statements, Gillespie has described the danger in that very scenario, once sharing his fear that out-of-control trucks would cross into the oncoming lane and hit a school bus or some other vehicle. He added more recently that “oncoming drivers have zero visibility around the tight turns and no shoulders, or anywhere to go, to escape the runaway truck.”
During the Jim Justice administration state transportation planners added, then removed, a $70 million project to construct a truck escape ramp. Money there got reallocated with a substitute plan of “a large retaining wall and install reinforced guardrails . . . the guardrail project is intended to keep vehicles from going off the side of the mountain” as stated in a 2023 release from the West Virginia Department of Transportation. Gillespie said at the time, “It does nothing to address the crashes that occur on the downhill Horseshoe Curve and the one below it.” McConnell’s concerns also centered around the nearby “Dead Woman’s Curve.”
Gillespie proposed the “real fix” at that point, “a large-scale project of entirely new road alignment, including adequate safety features such as the Catch-Net System.” This “truck arrestor system” uses a series of nets to slow the truck to a stop. Highway officials in Wyoming tested the system rigorously for vehicle weights beyond that of typical tractor-trailers as well. The Big Horn Radio Network in Wyoming shared that “they are typically installed on mountain passes or highway routes with a steep grade of six percent or more.”
With accidents mounting on that stretch of road, department of highways officials have scheduled a meeting for the end of October that will include regional state senators and delegates. Gillespie concluded, “I remain hopeful they will hear what we have to say and find a way to make reasonable improvements on the mountain.”
U.S. Route 33 remains a vital route for tourism into the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area as well as freight passing to or from Virginia. It is also an oft-traveled highway for those in Grant and Hardy counties driving to points west and southwest.
