Sunday, February 7, 2010
Officials Seeking Solution To Rash Of U.S. 43 Wrecks
By Tom Smith Senior Staff Writer/ Times Daily
Published: Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 11:42 p.m.
Numerous handmade crosses can be seen just off the shoulder of the roadway on U.S. 43 from Killen to the Alabama-Tennessee state line.
Each one was placed there as a memorial to loved ones killed in traffic accidents along the nine-mile stretch of road.
State records show a dozen fatalities have occurred on the two-lane highway during the past 15 years. Seven have occurred since 2005, including four within the past 10 days.
Another accident on U.S. 43 just north of Killen within the past 10 days left a driver in critical condition.
"I can't begin to explain why there so many wrecks there," said Killen Fire Chief Randy Brown. "But I know we've worked a ton of them."
Traffic counts conducted by the Alabama Department of Transportation in 2008 show an average of 6,700 cars a day travel that section of highway.
"When you have that much traffic, you're going to have accidents," said Eddie Russell, coordinator for the North Alabama Highway Safety Office in Tuscumbia.
Benjamin Sockwell lives about a half-mile off U.S. 43, and he will tell you quickly that he is "getting a little nervous these days about driving out on the highway."
"What's going on out there," Sockwell said. "I wish someone would give us some answers."
It remains a mystery even for state troopers and transportation officials.
"There's nothing wrong with the road," said state trooper Capt. Joe Duncan, commander of the local post. "If every car that goes through there were wrecking, I would say there is something wrong, but that's not the case. "It goes back to driver error. You hate to say that, but that's the bottom line."
At least two of the recent wrecks on that stretch of U.S. 43 have been blamed on drivers who allowed their vehicles to drift into the lane of approaching traffic.
"When you cross into the path of a commercial vehicle, it's usually not going to be a good outcome," Duncan said.
Based on 2008 state crash statistics, the three major causes of wrecks are failure to yield, driver not in control and misjudged stopping distance.
Tim Anderton has been a member of the Greenhill Volunteer Fire Department since 1988. He said he has developed his own theory about the matter, basing it on his experiences responding to wrecks on U.S. 43.
"There's no telling how many times I've heard a wreck victim say 'I stopped and looked both ways but didn't see anything,' " Anderton said.
"They look down the road and right past the traffic heading right at them."
Anderton said there are many county roads that intersect with U.S. 43 where sight is no problem. Yet, crashes still occur there.
"There's intersections where you can see a mile in either direction and people will still pull out in front of another car," he said.
"It's almost like they can't see the forest for the trees," Brown said.
Duncan said troopers patrol U.S. 43 as much as any area of the county in an effort to prevent accidents.
"We try to take a strategic approach when we have a lot of accidents in the same area," he said. "We look at what causes wrecks and then look at what we can do to have an impact on stopping them. It's just human nature to make mistakes and when that happens in a vehicle, there's going to be wrecks.
"All we can do is patrol the roads and enforce the laws as best we can to try and prevent the tragedy that we've been experiencing lately. When we write a ticket, it's a helpful hint not to commit the violation again."
Sockwell said a possible solution could be widening U.S. 43 from U.S. 72 to the state line. Turning the road into a four-lane highway has been talked about for years, and area legislators have fought to include the project on the state transportation department's five-year road plan. The project is back on the plan, but it could be up to three years before construction begins.
James Brown, division engineer for the Alabama Department of Transportation, said the contract for the first phase of four-laning project has been issued and work is progressing.
That first section to be four-laned will be from U.S. 72 to Alabama 64.
"Whether four-laning the road will improve the safety, it's hard to say," James Brown said. "We hope it will because it will be a divided highway.
"But it's hard to correct driver error, and unfortunately, that's the biggest reason for accidents."
Randy Brown said U.S. 43 is a good road with no bad curves or blind spots.
"I guess people feel secure when they're driving on it because it is pretty open for the most part," he said. "When that happens, people tend to go a little faster than the speed limit and they let down their guard. Adding those together is a recipe for mistakes, and when you're driving, you can't afford mistakes.
By the numbers
In 2008, there were 123,969 reported traffic accidents in Alabama. The leading causes were:
Source: North Alabama Highway Safety Office
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