It took multiple crashes over several years, as well as multiple meetings with state and local officials, but Nesquehoning’s police chief says that the number of tractor-trailers coming down Route 93 into the borough is decreasing.

He said that the state sent a letter to Amazon and other businesses in the Hazleton business district regarding not sending trucks toward Route 93 and down into Nesquehoning.

During a meeting in November 2024, it was noted that Amazon drivers had been the majority of the people ignoring detours and using Route 93 when transporting products.

“I can say confidently that since the letter was sent out, there has been a pretty drastic decline in at least Amazon trucks that are coming through that we’ve noticed,” Chief Bradley Hess told borough council last month. “It’s nice that that meeting was warranted and there are results.”

There are still some big rigs using the route and Hess said that will never completely end. However, he was happy with the progress that had been made.

Nesquehoning officials, for years, have asked the state, as well as Hazleton area businesses, to do something about trucks coming down the steep mountain. Many drivers don’t stop at the posted truck pull-off at the top of the mountain to downshift, resulting in several crashes at the intersection of Route 209 at the base of the mountain, or rigs running up the runaway truck ramp or rolling on the Broad after losing their brakes.

In 2016, Nesquehoning emergency responders responded to three tractor-trailer crashes on Route 93, causing concerns to be raised and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to place more signage leading up to the top of the mountain from the Hazleton area.

Truck detours were also put in place; however, that didn’t solve the problem.

In 2022, another rig lost its brakes, rolling over in the middle of the Broad Mountain coming down Route 93 before catching fire.

And in August, a big rig sped across the intersection, barely missing a car that passed seconds earlier, before slamming into an embankment next to a building at the bottom of the intersection.

In November, Hess had reported that from Jan. 1, 2024, borough police had issued 279 citations for oversize loads and vehicles not stopping at the pull-off, as well as four tractor-trailers with smoking brakes, two truck fires, four trucks on the runaway truck ramp and one truck crash.

Hess is in the process of gathering data for this year regarding the trucks to send to the state.