MDOT to install median cable guardrail next year on portion of US-23 where head-on crash occurred
Vehicles zip by on US-23 north of Silver Lake Road in Green Oak Township, not far from where a two-car crash killed five people on Sunday. The crash occurred when a Toyota Prius crossed the grassy median and struck a SUV.
Steve Pepple | AnnArbor.com
A median cable guardrail to prevent crossover crashes will be installed along US-23 in Livingston County next spring, part of the state's five-year safety improvement plan.
Since Sunday, many have been questioning whether such a guardrail would have prevented a tragic head-on crash in Green Oak Township that killed five people — three in one vehicle and two in the other.
"It's a safety improvement, basically designed to prevent vehicles from crossing over into the opposite lane of traffic," Michigan Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kari Arend said.
MDOT expects median cable guardrails to reduce cross-median crashes by an estimated 90 percent. The planned cable guardrail has been in MDOT's plans for that section of US-23 for several years and is not a reaction to Sunday's crash, officials said.
Sunday's crash occurred when a silver 2002 Toyota Prius traveling north on US-23 north of Ann Arbor crossed the median into oncoming lanes of US-23, striking a blue 2003 Chevrolet Blazer.
The Prius had four teenagers inside, and three were killed. Those were University of Michigan student Heather Comstock, 19, of Okemos; Matthew Kolstoe, 18, of Okemos, who was driving the vehicle; and Sarina Seger, 18, of Williamston, who was a passenger in the Prius.
The SUV had two adults and three children inside. The adults were killed: Cynthia Skutt, 62, of Fremont, Ohio, who was driving the 2003 Chevrolet Blazer, and passenger Alfred King, 56.
Green Oak Township Police Chief Robert Brookins said adding a barrier to that portion of US-23 will go a long way in helping to prevent crossover crashes. He said Sunday's crash was the second fatal crossover crash in that same stretch of US-23 — between Silver Lake and Lee roads — in less than a year.
"I think some type of median barrier will go a long way in mitigating these types of crashes," Brookins said. "I would certainly welcome ... the erection of any type of median."
Two projects will occur simultaneously on US-23 next spring, Arend said. Those include installing a median cable guardrail — steel wire ropes mounted on posts to prevent vehicles from traveling over the median into oncoming traffic — and resurfacing and bridge work.
Arend said the median cable guardrail will run along about 22 miles of US-23 in Livingston County, from the Genesee County line south to M-36. The resurfacing and bridge work will take place along US-23 from Silver Lake Road to just south of I-96.
"That was a program we had only planned for our 2011 construction season," Arend said. "It has been in our five-year plan for the last several years."
Eric Bombery, transportation planner for the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study, said the median cable guardrail will be a good thing for that portion of US-23.
"It definitely needs it," he said. "The median's pretty narrow there, and it's just a very busy stretch of highway."
Bombery said median cable guardrails installed in other parts of the state have effectively stopped cars and tractor-trailers from crossing medians and driving into oncoming traffic.
"It works," he said. "(And they are) much more cost-effective than concrete barriers and steel guardrails."
Click here to download a map showing where MDOT median cable guardrail is currently in place and where future projects are planned.
Heather Lockwood is a reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at heatherlockwood@annarbor.com or follow her on Twitter.
Comments
a2badger
Tue, Nov 2, 2010 : 5:05 p.m.
Sadly, it took five fatalities to finally address this problem on US23
jcj
Sat, Oct 16, 2010 : 8:14 a.m.
There will ALWAYS be accidents fatal and otherwise! I for one do not want to drive down a road with 8' concrete walls in the median! Where do we draw the line? Do we allow deer hunting year round so there won't be any car deer fatalities? (About 60,000 collisions with 5-10 fatalities a year in MI ) There are obvious spots where extra protection is needed. But I would rather spend more money giving drivers IQ test. There is seldom a morning that goes by that there is not an accident or three on area freeways! 99.9% of those accidents are not the fault of the road.
C6
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 7:28 a.m.
ruminator: If you check the earlier reports on this accident in the news here (in particular the one posted Tuesday at 1:22PM titled "Autopsy finds driver in fatal US-23 crash was conscious when car crossed median") I'm afraid you'll find that sadly the driver of the Toyota was one of the victims. Scooter Dog: If you go back and read the initial Ann Arbor dot com report on this accident (posted by Amalie Nash at 8:38PM on Sunday) you'll see that it includes the following statement: "The Prius flipped and rolled over due to the impact of the crash", (Green Oak Township Deputy Fire Chief Kevin) Gentry said. I think your stating the Toyota "was cartwheeling (sic) thru the air" is pure speculation on your part, perhaps based on reading Deputy Chief Gentry's undoubtedly more informed statement. This was a very tragic event and to make such speculation I believe is a disservice to everyone. I am of the opinion that in the end, your mantra of "speed kills" won't particularly apply here.
Julius
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 6:17 a.m.
6 lanes is a good idea because it will alleviate the congestion to some degree. The only reservation I have about a cable barrier is what it will do to a motorcyclist. I'd rather have a car totalled by the cable than to have it find its way across into the oncoming lanes.
treetowncartel
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 11:01 p.m.
I witnessed a car cross the median and do the "on comming trafffic lane hop" before. Luckily, it crosssed the lanes of traffics without hitting anybody. Witnessing the white knuckles on the driver as they traversed north in the right hand shoulder area was something else.It was merely a matter of the moment that the situation was uneventful. I am pretty sure the engineers involved can easily figure out which side, or sides, of the highway, can get airborne and place the cable accordingly, but can they account for the unknown?
treetowncartel
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 10:51 p.m.
I do question some of the some commenters who suggest that the area where the crash happened is entitled to an immediate fix due to the pre-existing condition of the road way. US 23 runs thre length of the state, some of it combined with I-75, what makes one part of that roadway more deserving of a barrier than another. Granted, this is taking into consideration the portion of this road way that has a hill or valley between it north of Saginaw and south of the Bridge.
libertyordeath
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 9:53 p.m.
In an article I read earlier today, it was reported that the area near this site has had 258 vehicular crashes between 2005 and 2009. Of those crashes two were fatal (0.775%). To put that in perspective, approximately 6,420,000 car crashes occurred throughout the U.S. in 2005, 39,200 of those being fatal (0.610%). The steel cable barriers are intended to catch/'ensnare' a car/truck before it goes airborne. Of course if the car is catapulted into the air prior to the barrier then the car can potentially cross over into the median. But the data reported by psaume23 suggests that cars are not airborne before the barrier, thus proving their effectiveness.
stunhsif
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 8:18 p.m.
@scooter dog, A car could more easily cart wheel over those concrete barriers ( up around Flint Saginaw area) then the proposed cable guardrails which you can now see on 94 between A2 and Detroit. The cable guardrail ensnares vehicles and also slows them down quickly. By ensnaring the vehicle it is much less likely to bounce back into traffic and get hit by cars coming up from behind. The cable system is also very cost effective to maintain and repair. It is a win win barrier system for everyone.
bruno_uno
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 8:10 p.m.
can we not make sure safety measures approved in 5 yr plans a mandate to implement in state budgets? perhaps others on the state bill? I find this so sad.
scooter dog
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 7:47 p.m.
@c6 First reports of the accident said car was cartwheeling thru the air. Kinda hard to stop a airborne cart wheeling car with a cable. Navy uses a tail hook to snag a cable on the flight deck. So are cars going to have a tail hook to catch the cable. ha ha ha your living in la la land
ruminator
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 7:36 p.m.
Was the Prius involved in the accident one of the vehicles recalled for possible sudden acceleration? If so, one wonders if the repairs were completed. The NHTSA should get interested since (thankfully) the driver and (hopefully) the vehicles black box survived the accident.
psaume23
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 7 p.m.
The cable barrier has prevented crossover accidents elsewhere: "The Indiana Department of Transportation installed 150 miles of new cable safety barriers within interstate medians in 2009. In the two years following test installation along 35 miles of I-65 and I-69 north of Indianapolis, the median cable barrier was struck 156 times but no vehicles crossed into oncoming traffic. (Press release from Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels)" If MDOT cannot have the cable barrier installed sooner than its "five year plan" would allow, it should place temporary barriers at the vulnerable spots in the interim.
snapshot
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 6:02 p.m.
A cable won't have any impact upon vehicle accidents and associated deaths. Driving has become a distraction to all the other activities taking place while behind the wheel. Just look at the vehicles around you if you're not too busy texting or talking.
a2citizen
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 5:52 p.m.
How about instead of all that grass in the medians that needs to be cut (which costs taxpayers a lot in the fuel and wages and equipment), plant shrubs/bushes that will slow down any median crossings. These plants will help the environment, decrease long-term spending and save lives maybe. Just a thought...if you agree, please pass on to our politicians! :) I would love to see more foliage along the highways.
David Briegel
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 5 p.m.
Macabre, check your history, Engler took this off the table when he refused matching funds from that evil big govt! How foolish was that? I don't blame Jenny for attempting to show how foolish this tax cut obsession can be! There are consequences.
michiganpoorboy
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 4:56 p.m.
How about driving safely?? Why should we spend money trying to save those that do not care about themselves??? Remember only the strong survive in the world. If you drive like HeII you will get there.
bunnyabbot
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 4:30 p.m.
while I think it can be said that most accidents occure due to human error (speeding!) I don't believe the investigation into the accident is complet yet so we cannot say for sure what happened. (hello, toyota only recalled a gagillion cars this year) Nor can we say that if the cables had already been in place this would not have happened. A car can easily bounce off the cables and hit another car traveling in the same direction and have similar fatalities. Anyone that has lived around this area for any length of time knows that the state has screwed us over on the m14-us23 road changes that have long been planned and shelved. The m14-us23 exchange is congested every single day during rush hour and fridays for longer :( anyone who makes trips just to go to costco knows how bad that stretch can be and how fast people go when there isn't a backup. add'ly I have seen a lot more state troopers sneaking around that area.
5c0++ H4d13y
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 3:51 p.m.
Can anyone honestly argue that a barrier between the two sides of the road would not have stopped a Prius from crossing over saving basically everyones lives? MDOT should be called to the carpet for this one. To me it would seem negligent not the separate traffic by a physical barrier.
C6
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 3:49 p.m.
Scooter Dog: Cables stop airborne aircraft all the time... the Navy has been doing that for decades. So far there's been no evidence either vehicle involved in this latest tragic accident was airborne either. So far there hasn't been any witness reports of excessive speed involved. Nor has there been any evidence or witness reports released as of yet to indicate any driver error or to support the absence thereof. It may eventually be determined for instance that a third vehicle changed lanes and cut off the vehicle that crossed the median, causing or at least contributing heavily to this accident. Or something else beyond all the possibilities thrown out there so far may eventually come to light. I drove this portion of US-23 late last Sunday morning on a trip from Ann Arbor to Flint, with the cruise control set at 72. My recollection is that I passed about as many other vehicles as passed us. I don't know when the rest of you are driving on this road, but in my experience the prevailing speed is usually between 70 and 75. Not the 80 or 80 plus that keeps cropping up in discussion here. I've never thought of this road as being hazardous to drive. It certainly isn't as poorly designed as the eastbound I-94 curve at Jackson Avenue in Ann Arbor is. There IS a lot of traffic during most days and hours on US-23 and I think an unusually high number of inattentive or otherwise poor drivers, but road design isn't going to do much to eliminate that.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 3:43 p.m.
I'm assuming that none of you are police personnel who investigated the crash, so I'm wondering how you know for certain that this type of barrier would have helped, or that speed contributed to the crash. Jenny was the one who cut the US-23 expansion from the list of approved projects. Livingston County has more Republican votes, so she felt there would be less political fallout in axing a much-needed project.
soggy waffle
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 3:32 p.m.
In any system there is always some level of accepted risk, a point at which extra precautions or money are too prohibitive to save an extra life. We could build planes that couldn't crash, perform surgeries with no risk, the list goes on. In the end there is some number of casualties per year we are simply willing to accept, given that in the end we can only do so much. For our automotive transportation system, that number is around 50,000 a year (though the past two years have seen a big dip, thats an approximate average including previous years). Thats 1 million people every 20 years. Maybe our problem is the obsession with going so fast; more lanes, more highways, etc. Our safety improvements just make people comfortable with taking new levels of risk (higher speed limits for example) and cancel themselves out. Congestion is a natural feedback to say that there are too many people to be going this fast. In the end, the improvement of course will help with a dangerous spot, but I think overall our priorities are wrong. Live closer to work, drive slower, use a broad network of roads to move lots of people rather than single high capacity ones.
scooter dog
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 3:15 p.m.
Oh sure make it 6 lanes,that'll really solve the speeding. Then it'll be like I-696 or I-96 80/90 plus MPH. How about some radar speed traps. I see them on I-94 all the time and they work great. Cables don't stop a airborn car
dfossil
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 3:04 p.m.
Yes, it needs cables but this whole section from Flint to Ann Arbor should be widened to 3 lanes each way and a solid median installed. THAT should have been done years ago but we would rather build prisons for potheads then serve the public. Oh yes and where is all this "stimulus money" going? I appreciate the position of the AnnArbor.com reporter here but No, MDOT hasn't done much of a job in Michigan as the conditions of our highways show. But hey! Lets talk about a rapid transit rail system and waste our money on "consultants" doing studies of the obvious!! What a crock when we know US 23 takes a huge amount of traffic North and South and has needed widening and better safety for years. Yes, MDOT does deserve some heat on these conditions.
David Briegel
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:57 p.m.
fjord, you are correct! The US 23 corridor was scheduled for 6 lanes but Engler cut taxes. Divider walls were to have been installed but Engler cut taxes. Cutting taxes is the be all and end all. Nothing else matters! This isn't the first accident and these aren't the first fatalaties. How can you have a discussion of this and so many other issues and not be allowed to draw any correlations or conclusions with this right wing obsession? Cause and effect is meaningless? Maybe A2.com will comment? Analyze? Report?
John of Saline
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:57 p.m.
The car still had to cross a grassy median, right? It's not like the opposing lanes of traffic are right next to each other.
Snehal
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:52 p.m.
@Heather - So, what does it exactly mean by "It has been in our five-year plan for the last several years."? Per my understanding this plan was on a 5 year plan for more than 5 years and it got carried forward to another 5 year plan because they were not able to do it in previous 5 year plan. Let me know what I am missing here. Which year was it put in the 5 year plan the first time? Do we have that information or would it be possible for you to get this information for public?
mkw
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:49 p.m.
People have been asking for this for the last 15 years but nothing was done. Much longer than 5 years.
Heather Lockwood
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:40 p.m.
@Snehal It is my understanding that there was no delay for this particular project. Kari Arend said the median cable guardrail project for that portion of US-23 had only ever been planned to begin in 2011.
Snehal
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:35 p.m.
And doesn't that prove that had this project be completed in timely manner i.e. within 5 years, this mishap could have been avoided? They had already identified the troublespot and agreed that this was a disaster prone area. So, who exactly is responsible for these several years of delay?
Snehal
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:23 p.m.
"It has been in our five-year plan for the last several years." - Isn't a five year plan supposed to be completed in five years instead of waiting for several years? What was the reason for delaying such a safety issue based project? This may not have been a reaction as they mentioned but certainly it looks like this unfortunate incident became the catalyst for this project to be undertaken. And its a pity.
Heather Lockwood
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:16 p.m.
@Quinn @Long Time No See MDOT's plan to install a median cable guardrail on that portion of US-23 has been part of it's five-year plan for several years. It is not a reaction to Sunday's crash. This has also been clarified in the article.
Old Salt
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:14 p.m.
Not having a guard rail where the accident occured is not the reason for the accident as some seam to imply, it was driver error,most likely he was distracted by something in the vehicle.. let's all Wait for the investigation and in the mean time Pray For The Families
Long Time No See
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:08 p.m.
@Quinn: "That was a program we had only planned for our 2011 construction season," Arend said. "It has been in our five-year plan for the last several years." Unless I'm misinterpreting that, it seems that this has been planned for some time and is not a direct reaction to the recent crashes.
Morgan
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:51 p.m.
It is so sad there has to be a fatality BEFORE safety mechanisms are installed on freeways. I don't get the logic.... :(
Morgan
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:49 p.m.
It is so sad there has to be a fatality BEFORE safety mechanisms are installed on freeways. I don't get the logic.... :(
michiganexpats.com
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:32 p.m.
I think this is a good idea. I hope it's constructed soon!