Missouri State Highway Patrol credits guard cable for reducing freeway fatalities

Despite Monday's fatal accident on Interstate 55, Missouri highways are statistically the safest they have been in nearly four years.

The number of fatal traffic accidents has dropped from 1,257 in 2005 to 941 in 2008, according to a report by Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety. This year, the state will push for more seat-belt use; 479 people killed in 2008 were not using them.

Guard cables are getting credit for stopping crossover accidents, according to Lt. John Hotz, Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman. Cables were installed in stages from 2005 and 2007 along I-70, I-44, I-29 and a stretch of I-55 just south of St. Louis. In the year preceding installation, 55 people died in crossover accidents along those highways. Since installation, two crossover deaths have been recorded.

Morris Maltzman, 62, died Monday after an 18-wheeler stuck the car he and another man, Justin Brown, 24, were pushing off the freeway after it ran out of gas.

Trooper Nathan Wheeles, spokesman for the highway patrol's Troop E, said the guard cable may have kept the 18-wheeler from crossing the median after hitting Matlzman's car; however, he said the accident remains under investigation.

ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.comA guard cable on southbound Interstate 55 is to help prevent fatalities.

The $4.5 million installation of guard cable along 44 miles on the southbound side of I-55 from Oak Ridge to Sikeston was finished last year. The thick wire bundles run through posts that are anchored by a concrete foundation and designed to bend with the impact of a car.

"We're very pleased with the way it's performing," said MoDOT project engineer Andy Meyer.

This year, the state will add guard cables to U.S. 67, between Crystal City and Fredericktown and "a few other places in the state," Meyer said.

Junior Sinn drives a truck and tows vehicles for his Cape Girardeau auto supply business and has wondered why the cables are so close to the shoulder of the highway.

"It looks like to me, you would bounce back into the highway," he said.

John Owen, dispatcher and driver for Sperling's Garage & Wrecker Service in Cape Girardeau, said he sees more serious damage on cars that hit the cable. He worries that "there's no room to pull over now. It would be a lot better in the [median[']s] center."

When the safety program first started in 2004, guard cable was put in the low-lying center of the median. But flooding undermined the poles holding the cable -- and repairs required outside contractors, Meyer said.

Newer guard cables are installed closer to the freeway shoulder partly to allow for quicker, easier maintenance by state crews. Yes, Meyer said, being closer to the highway may cause a car to bounce back into traffic, but that kind of a crash is less likely to kill.

He said MoDOT will track the cost of line repairs this year to determine annual maintenance costs.

Sinn said he didn't know what the guard cables cost, "but when you're saving a life, that overrides the cost."

For more traffic safety information, visit www.savemolives.com.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

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