Untitled Document

I-84 driver goes on 'candlestick' assault

It’s a relatively simple and logical requirement when driving through highway work zones – don’t turn the highway segment into an obstacle course defined by orange safety markers (otherwise known as candlesticks).

Those upright tubular markers aren’t intended to be targets.

Someone should have reminded a driver who traveled through an Interstate 84 construction area west of Meridian in the early morning hours Tuesday.

A construction engineer for Connecting Idaho Partners offered the following account of the incident.

At approximately 2:15 a.m. a Central Paving foreman witnessed a black truck weaving in and out of the westbound travel lanes and knocking over traffic candlesticks just east of the Ten Mile overpass. The foreman notified an official with JUB, the project’s general contractor, who in turn began following the truck as it approached the Black Cat overpass.

He reported the driver and provided a vehicle license number to law enforcement. The offending driver pulled onto the shoulder and waited for the Idaho State Police and Nampa City Police to arrive. He was subsequently arrested on a charge of driving under the influence, and his vehicle was towed.

Before he pulled to the side of the highway, however, the driver left approximately one-quarter mile of bruised candlesticks in his wake. Traffic control was removed by 5 a.m. and traffic was running smoothly on the route before the peak morning commute began.