Near Miss at Mine Entrance

On March 7, 2016 an accident was thankfully avoided between an automobile traveling on Highway 16 and a large gravel truck leaving the Croell site. This near collision was caused by the gravel truck pulling into and across the highway and was avoided because of fast action on the part of the driver of the automobile. Please be aware of the newly introduced danger and drive carefully when approaching the Croell gravel pit from either direction. [Update: This incident was reported in ‘Letters to the Editor’ in the Rapid City Journal dated March 16, 2016 by an individual involved in the near collision. — see below]

Gravel-pit truck traffic threatens public safety

We were traveling to Rapid City on Monday, March 7, and as we passed Bear Country and approached the turnoff to the “gravel pit” there was one vehicle in front of us. Just as that car nearly reached the turnoff, a loaded gravel truck pulled across the median in front of it. Thankfully, the driver swerved out of the way or all of us would have been involved in a terrible accident. The truck’s load wasn’t covered and he put out a nice cloud of dust all the way down the hill toward Reptile Gardens. Is this really what the Pennington County commissioners want to happen? I think not.

This endangers lives, both with accidents and the terrible dust that is so unhealthy to people who live in the area and the visitors who come to the Black Hills. I can’t imagine that situation with all the trucks and the tourists along with the locals who will be traveling south on Highway 16 in the very near future.

Please people, continue to speak up about this dangerous situation and call your commissioners.

— OnaMae Fuller, Newcastle, Wyo.

As originally printed in the Rapid City Journal in the March 16, 2016, letters