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Residents tell Lemont board truck fire and tanker incidents exposed gaps in traffic and emergency response
Summary
Two residents urged the Lemont board to address traffic safety and police staffing after a Jan. 14 semi-truck fire and repeated tanker incidents diverted traffic through neighborhoods and strained response; commenters said the village did not issue alerts or request state assistance.
Two residents told the Lemont Village Board on Jan. 26 that recent truck incidents and traffic diversions created dangerous conditions and exposed gaps in local emergency response and enforcement.
Laura Regal, who spoke during public comment, said a Jan. 14 semi-truck fire on Lemont Road near 97th Street forced traffic through a residential neighborhood for roughly four hours and that she personally directed traffic while trying to reach emergency authorities. “The intersection of 97th Street and Lemont Road carries more than 22,000 vehicles per day,” Regal said, and she argued that Lemont should have requested assistance from the Illinois State Police or Homeland Security to block the southbound I-55 exit and prevent the diversion that trapped residents.
Regal said Woodridge officers eventually arrived, but that Lemont’s notification system did not issue a warning to residents. She told the board she called 911 four times during the incident and urged officials to address staffing, emergency planning and development proposals that could increase traffic.
Dave Wilkes described a separate recent incident in which a loaded tanker landed in a ditch and said 911 took multiple calls before sending help. Wilkes urged enforcement against idling trucks and overloaded loads on local roads and asked the board for updates on a traffic study and on a roughly $600,000 TIF-funded project he described as a ‘forge,’ for which he said the public had seen no updates.
Board members did not record substantive replies to the commenters during the meeting; no formal directive or vote was recorded on staffing, mutual-aid protocols, notification procedures or the traffic study at this meeting.
