Motorists traveling Route 93 toward Nesquehoning will soon see more signs popping up warning tractor-trailers of the steep Broad Mountain.

On Thursday, officials and residents gathered to discuss options to stop crashes due to rigs losing their brakes while descending the 2¼-mile hill into the borough of Nesquehoning.Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials, Tom Rogal, Carbon County manager, and Ronald Young, community relations coordinator for District 5, outlined what the state will be doing in the coming months to try to stop truck crashes from happening along Route 93 and at the intersection of Route 209 at the bottom of the mountain.From April 1 to April 3, three crashes happened on each of the three days.SignsRogal said that the first phase will include adding dozens of oversized signs to both sides of the road warning trucks of the hill, cutting back brush along Route 93, putting paving markers on the roadway and enhancing and enlarging the 38 existing signs already in place.Signs will begin approximately 2,000 feet before the designated truck pull-off at the top of the Broad Mountain and continue to the T-intersection at the bottom.A total of 87 signs alerting drivers to the steep hill.Rogal said bright orange diamonds on top of some of the signs should catch drivers' attention as well."So hopefully if they can't read the English signs or aren't normally paying attention to signs the orange should catch their eye and give them a heads up that something is ahead and to make the appropriate actions but it all is up to the operators," Rogal said.PennDOT will begin working on adding the signs within the next month, Young said."We're making them larger and more noticeable and they should command attention," he said. "We'll see if they command enough attention to stop things."DetoursIn the longer term, Young said that PennDOT is looking at banning commercial vehicles with the exception of local deliveries along this portion of Route 93.Officials from PennDOT districts 4 and 5 are conducting a study on detour routes which would maximize safety while minimizing distance.Young said this may mean stopping trucks in Hazleton in Luzerne County, but added that any changes to routes will take upward of a year before anything is definitively determined.Until then, Nesquehoning and state police will continue to patrol on the top of the mountain to work to stop trucks who fail to heed the signs, and PennDOT will continue to maintain the runaway truck ramp, which has been used more frequently than ever hoped.The rampRogal said that the ramp has worked in the past and his department does routine maintenance "fluffing" the ramp to make sure it allows a truck to "sink" into the stone as it loses speed.He pointed out that the ramp is used more often than people realize due to unreported incidents with tractor-trailers who are able to stop close to the bottom of the ramp and are able to back out safely.Young said many times trucks make it to the bottom of the Broad Mountain with their brakes smoking or on fire and are able to stop without incident so they allow their brakes to cool down then continue on their way.Public safetyEveryone in attendance agreed that the main reason for the upcoming changes on the Broad Mountain comes down to one thing."Public safety is paramount," Rogal said.State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, said the discussion was beneficial to finding a solution."The majority of truck drivers are stopping but it only takes one to not stop and follow procedures coming down," he said."That's why we have the incidents. 99.9 percent of the drivers come down without problem. It's just that one driver who doesn't stop or doesn't follow procedures or check his equipment properly. We want to make sure we are doing everything for public safety.""Every Carbon County resident who raised concerns about the serious traffic safety problem on Route 93 had their voices heard today by state, county and local authorities who are working together to mitigate the truck accidents that are happening at an alarming rate," said state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Luzerne/Carbon."All safety options are on the table to address the rash of truck accidents on Broad Mountain including increased enforcement and an outright ban on large tractor-trailers that use Route 93 to bypass safer alternative trucking routes," he added.The meeting was organized through a collaborative effort between Heffley's and Yudichak's offices, Nesquehoning Borough Council, Nesquehoning police, Pennsylvania State Police, the Carbon County Emergency Management Agency, Carbon County Commissioners, local business owners and PennDOT.