Last Saturday evening, a car eastbound on I-40 near Gorman Street on Raleigh's south side crossed the grassy, unprotected divide, striking another car in the middle westbound lane. This time, the injuries weren't life-threatening -- lucky indeed. Crossover wrecks at interstate speeds all too often prove fatal.

As was the case June 4 just east of the Wade Avenue split. There, 54-year-old George Smith of Cary was killed on his morning commute to Durham by an alleged drunken driver in an SUV that crossed the median and slammed into Smith's car at high speed.

There is no protective barrier at that spot either. In all, about eight miles of I-40 as it loops through western and southern Raleigh are guarded against crossovers only by an unusually wide stretch of grassy median. No concrete walls, no steel barriers, no cables.

It emerged after the June 4 wreck that the state Department of Transportation gives priority to installing anti-crossover devices on medians that are 70 feet wide or less. With limited resources that makes sense -- but given the heavy traffic loads along I-40 in the Triangle, virtually any vehicle crossing the median is likely to collide with another. An N&O editorial June 6 urged the DOT to install a relatively inexpensive cable barrier along the unprotected stretch, and the department said it would launch a safety study.

Now, the good news from the DOT is that the study has been completed and it recommends installing a cable, estimated to cost $1 million, from mile marker 289 (near Wade Avenue) to mile 297 (Lake Wheeler Road). A spokesman said that the DOT is "looking for funding" and will try to include the project in next year's Transportation Improvement Plan.

Amen, but for the sake of motorists the state should find the funds and summon the will to string a safety cable sooner rather than later.