If you attended a state Senate Transportation Committee meeting in Olympia earlier this month, you would have heard a glowing report on cable median barriers.
In that report, state transportation officials told Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen and others that cables stop 96 percent of all vehicles that strike the barrier from crossing over into opposing traffic.
The committee was told that people involved in cable barrier median accidents were expected to die or be injured 18 percent of the time.
In contrast, striking concrete or steel guardrails was shown to be much more dangerous, causing injuries or death in 41 percent and 42 percent of accidents respectively, members of the committee were told.
The Feb. 8 report left out 10 miles of cable barrier on I-5 in Marysville, which had four fatal crossover accidents that killed seven people during that span.
When Marysville figures are added back in and fatal accidents alone are considered, deaths were more likely to result when drivers statewide struck a cable barrier than if they hit a concrete median, according to state accident data.
Deaths were slightly less likely to occur when drivers hit cables than if they hit a steel guardrail, the revised data show.
Indeed, the only fatal crossover accidents involving cable barriers statewide between 1999 and 2005 were in Marysville, the state’s data show.
The state’s earlier report focused primarily on data that showed injuries were much less likely to occur if drivers struck cables than if they hit concrete or steel guardrails.
Marysville was left out of the calculations because the state found that the cables were improperly installed there, said Dick Albin, an assistant design engineer for the state. The state counted only 35 miles of freeway where it felt cable barrier was installed properly and had been in place long enough to generate reliable information.
The earlier report contained a footnote explaining that accident data from the stretch of I-5 near Marysville was not included in calculations.
“We feel that they are working (around the state) and we are investigating what happened in Marysville,” Albin said.
The state conducted an investigation into the effectiveness of the barrier after a 2005 analysis by The Herald showed that along a three-mile stretch of I-5 in Marysville, the barriers failed to stop cars in the median 20 percent of the time.
That was in sharp contrast to statewide results, which showed the cables stopped cars more than 90 percent of the time, the analysis found.
The state also studied, and in Marysville concluded, that a ditch in the median allowed smaller vehicles to slip under the cables 13 times between 1999 and 2005, including one fatal accident, Albin said.
Last fall, the state spent $2.4 million to install a second set of cable barriers, level the ditch and relocate portions of the old cables.
“Where we were going (with that report) is we had thought we addressed the issues in Marysville,” Albin said.
The improper installation of the cables does not account for the majority of the fatal crossover accidents that have occurred near Marysville since 1999. Large vehicles, including a truck towing a trailer, have sliced through the cables, crossed the median and smashed into oncoming traffic.
That’s what happened in the accident that killed Cliff Warren on Feb. 13. That accident, which also left a bus driver with serious injuries, prompted Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday to order an independent study to evaluate whether cables are the right median barrier for Marysville.
“Everything up to this point has said it’s the right system for Marysville,” said Dave McCormick, the department’s assistant regional administrator for maintenance and traffic operations. “We need to take a step back, look at this accident and re-evaluate it.”
The state has said the fatal accidents in Marysville have been unusual, with the vehicles driving at high speeds and approaching the cable barriers at angles steeper than they are designed to stop.
McCormick said the state’s experience with cable barriers is limited because it’s relatively new and because there are far fewer miles of cable barrier than concrete or steel guardrail.
“It’s hard to draw a statistical conclusion when one accident will change the percentages so dramatically,” he said.
Other states that have more miles of cable barrier and longer histories of them report that they are less dangerous than other barriers, both for deaths and injuries, he said.
McCormick said cable barriers have reduced the number of crossover accidents in Marysville since they were installed, despite heavier traffic on that section of highway.
Haugen said she was aware that Marysville had been left out of the report given to her committee.
She said it was appropriate for the state to omit that information.
“Some people say it’s just not working, but I’m not there yet,” said, Haugen, a Democrat from Camano Island.
She said cable barriers are saving lives around the state, adding that she supports the state’s aggressive use of the barriers over the past two years.
The state spent $8.8 million to install 80 miles of cables in eight counties between fall 2005 and late summer 2006.
But the barrier still doesn’t work in Marysville, said Mike Nelson, an attorney for several families of people involved in crossover accidents in Marysville, including the Holschen family of Bothell, to whom the state recently paid $2 million.
“They’re whitewashing cable barriers and trying to say how good they look,” Nelson said. “How many more deaths does it take before the state wakes up to its own statistics and properly puts in a barrier that prevents crossover accidents?”
Haugen said the goal has to be to keep people on the road.
“I just think we need people to drive more safely,” she said. A vehicle in motion “is a lethal weapon. It’s like using a gun. You better make sure you’re using it safely. I think people forget that.”
Ask questions
State officials and Washington State Patrol troopers will answer questions about cable barriers along I-5 near Marysville at a 2 p.m. meeting today at Stanwood Middle School, 9405 271st St. NW, Stanwood.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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