STANWOOD – Alan Ringen came looking for answers, but he left haunted by the same, familiar questions.
Ringen, 51, was among roughly 70 people at Stanwood Middle School on Saturday who listened as state transportation officials discussed the most recent fatal crash involving cable barriers in the median of I-5 near Marysville.
For Ringen, the gathering was eerily similar to a meeting in Marysville nearly two years ago. A month earlier, a crossover crash killed his daughter-in-law’s parents – Darrell and Sandra Knapp of Marysville – and her 6-year-old brother, Noah.
The officials’ comments, their statistics, even video footage of a successful cable barrier crash test seemed recycled, Ringen said.
“This is the same dog-and-pony show we went through in Marysville,” said Ringen, a Marysville resident. “It’s the same smoke and mirrors, and people are still dying.”
State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, invited officials from the state Department of Transportation and the Washington State Patrol to discuss cable barriers between Marysville and the Sillaguamish River during her Saturday town hall meeting.
On Friday, Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered an independent review of cable barriers in Marysville and statewide. The request was spurred by a fatal crossover accident that occurred along 10 miles of cable median barrier on I-5 in Marysville on Feb. 13.
In that accident, Cliff Warren of Everett became the eighth person to die in a crossover crash in Marysville since 2000.
On Saturday, transportation officials promised a full analysis of why the cable barriers failed again. They’ve been shown to stop crossover accidents elsewhere in the state, said Dave McCormick, the Transportation Department’s regional administrator for maintenance and traffic operations.
“It does work, it can work, but we have to learn why this situation comes up when it doesn’t,” McCormick said.
The state likes cable barriers so much that it invested $8.8 million in them between fall 2005 and late summer 2006, installing 80 miles of cables in eight counties.
Several people at Saturday’s meeting didn’t share the state’s opinion. They doubted the ability of cable barriers to stop large, fast-moving vehicles.
“(It) reminds me of fencing in rhinos with dental floss,” said Anne Lord, who lives northwest of Arlington.
In 2005, an analysis by The Herald showed that in a three-mile stretch near Marysville, the barriers failed to stop cars in the median 20 percent of the time.
Several months later, state transportation officials announced that the ditch in the median and the barrier’s placement there failed to prevent small cars from slipping under the cables and into oncoming traffic.
The state spent $2.4 million to install a second strand of cables along the median, level out the ditch and move the old strand. The work was completed a few months ago.
At Saturday’s meeting, State Patrol Chief John Batiste said troopers have been reducing the number of accidents on I-5 by focusing on speeders and aggressive drivers near Marysville. The state patrol has used unmarked cars and an airplane to nab scofflaws.
“Folks are driving too fast, and we have to find a way to change their driving behavior,” Batiste said.
Sid Martin, 77, of Stanwood, suggested more money be spent on enforcement instead of barriers.
“Maybe that’s where the money ought to be spent, on troopers, not this Mickey Mouse thing,” he said.
John Holschen of Bothell – whose daughter, Megan Holschen, 18, was killed in a crossover crash in the 10-mile stretch in December 2004 – expressed concern over the state’s presentation Saturday.
State officials should be more up-front about possibly having a unique problem on their hands in Marysville, he said.
“That really makes me wonder, are we really approaching this from the point of view that we really want to solve this problem?” said Holschen, whose family recently received a $2 million settlement from the state. “Or are we approaching it like we want to ignore it?”
The second set of cable barriers in the median was a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t enough, Ringen said.
“It’s still not working,” he said. “It’s obvious that it’s not working. People are still dying, and we need to do something about it.”
Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.
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