Gaps in safety

Broken highway median barriers leave the public vulnerable to crossover accidents. Repairs must be made promptly

A highway-median safety barrier that's been broken for weeks is no barrier to tragedy. That, sadly and inexcusably, proved true in Wendell on Christmas Day, when an out-of-control vehicle crossed the median of U.S. 64/264 during a rainstorm and hit a passenger car, killing two of the car's occupants and critically injuring a third.

The cable barrier had been down since an accident on Nov. 7 -- yet the state Department of Transportation apparently didn't even know it was broken.

According to a Jan. 1 account by The N&O's Thomasi McDonald, a state transportation official says his staff learned about the damaged U.S. 64/264 cables only after the Dec. 25 crash. (Since then, the work has been put on a fast track.)

The DOT, said division engineer Wally Bowman, usually learns about safety-barrier damage by combing through Highway Patrol accident reports, or by driving the highways every month or two. Then it contacts a private contractor, who has 30 days to make the repair.

A barrier breach that's regarded as posing an imminent danger is supposed to be fixed on an emergency basis within 10 days. But on a busy expressway, a non-functioning median barrier is dangerous by definition. As it stands, the whole approach to barrier repairs seems like something out of the horse-and-buggy era. It needs a jump start.

Start with this:

Guardrails and barriers, along roadsides and in the medians, are increasingly vital components of highway safety. The DOT, to its credit, has added many miles of the cable or steel-rail devices in recent years. There are still miles to go -- for example, one stretch of Interstate 40/440 through south Raleigh lacks any protection against crossovers other than the width of its grassy median.

But safety barriers, particularly the cables, take a beating as they do their jobs. Frequently sections of 100 yards or so are down. The ability to make prompt, effective repairs is a must, as the Wendell tragedy shows. The fact is, as anyone driving U.S. 64/264 during the New Year's weekend could see, median cables were damaged to the point of uselessness in several locations near the fatal crash scene.

Since any barrier damage will be have to be fixed at some point, why not right away? -- within a week for sure. Get that contractor geared up for quick action -- and, if learning about a problem is the problem, get the public involved. Post a number, maybe 1-800-BARRIER, and monitor the tips every day. Then act, pronto.

There's no reason for the DOT to have to hunt through accident reports or send out an inspector to find out what thousands of motorists can see with their own eyes every day. Police departments and rescue squads also could follow a reporting procedure to bring barrier damage to the DOT's attention.

As the department surely knows, highway fatalities, although falling by some measures of danger, remain too much of a tragic reality, claiming about 1,500 lives each year in North Carolina. Crossover accidents are among the most dangerous, and safety barriers prevent them -- if they're in place.

True, the DOT can't be expected to make every road perfectly safe or to stop all bad driving, but it must keep its guardrails up. Cables too. This is life and death stuff.