Interstate cable barriers save lives, create more minor accidents

Safety cables slated this summer to Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids will come with a trade-off: After city officials asked to make Interstate 380 a safer road to drive, the Iowa Department of Transportation is getting set to make improvements. But those safety measures come with trade-offs.

Between 1990 and 1999, only 2.4 percent of all interstate crashes in Iowa were crossmedian crashes, yet these crashes resulted in 32.7 percent of all interstate fatalities.

“We've seen at least a 30 percent increase in traffic in the last 10 years and a 50 percent increase in truck traffic in the last 10 years,” said Tom Welch, safety engineer for the DOT.

While overall traffic fatalities hit a near-record low last year, deaths from cross-median crashes grew; Welch said while cars are getting safer, drivers are paying less attention to the road.

To save the 15 lives lost in those cross-median crashes, Welch wants to add cable barriers in certain sections of Iowa roadways. Already, the cables stretch near Des Moines and on parts of I-80. This summer, the DOT plans to put the cables through Cedar Rapids, from Wright Brothers Boulevard to Blairs Ferry Road.

The cables have saved lives.

“Truly, if that had not been there, we would have got hit,” said the Rev. Scott Jones of Ames, 55.

Jones and his wife were driving on Interstate 35 from Ames to Des Moines when a semi-trailer truck crossed the median straight at them.

“Immediately they forced him back into the median, so that was a relief,” Jones of the cables.

“Those people would not have survived that crash,” said Welch. “There's no doubt in my mind.”

Welch said the cables are 90 percent effective in reducing fatalities from cross-median crashes.

But, for every fatal crash prevented, Welch said the cables cause 8 to 10 times more minor crashes in which a vehicle would have come to rest in the median, but instead hit the cables.

That's what happened to Don Gunderson's wife. Gunderson, 65, from Nevada, said his wife was driving on I-35 after a storm when she lost control and went into the ditch.

“The cable barrier caused $5,600 damage to the car,” said Gunderson.

Gunderson said that's a stiff price for a safety improvement that made his damage worse.

Welch said cables are one of the most cost-effective tools he has, at only $100,000 a mile.

Justin Foss, KCRG-TV