I-Team: Critics Say Mass. Not Doing Enough To Prevent Wrong-Way Crashes
BOSTON (CBS) - Wrong-way crashes are more likely to result in death than any other type of traffic accident. They kill and injure thousands of people every year and the problem is growing nationwide. But some states appear to be taking more aggressive action than Massachusetts to prevent them.
Faith Jeorge knows all too well how terrifying these crashes can be. She was seriously injured, but survived when a car hit her head-on at full speed on the Southeast Expressway. "We rolled over a couple of times and smashed into a jersey barrier," she recalled from her Taunton home. "I enjoy the day I am living in because you don't know when it's going to be taken from you."
Lynn Serewicz of Clinton knows what it is like when a life is suddenly taken. "I am in pain every single day of my life," she said. Her son Tommy was killed by a wrong-way driver on Route 190 in Worcester. He left behind a wife and two young boys. "Being a dad was everything to him," she said.
Wrong-way drivers have killed 83 people in Massachusetts since 2009 and that figure doesn't include crashes with injuries like Faith's and the 128 collision in January when two people were seriously hurt.
In an effort to prevent these crashes, federal transportation officials recommended lowering "Wrong Way" and "Do Not Enter signs" to bring them more in line with the drivers' line of vision and so they are easier to see at night. That was four years ago and Massachusetts is still working on that project. Some signs have been lowered, but not in the area of Faith's accident, or the 128 crash in January.
Lowering signs was not enough for safety officials in Rhode Island. They are leading the nation in the use of radar sensors that can immediately detect a wrong-way driver and notify police.
The state has installed two dozen of the signs in high-risk areas. When a wrong-way driver is detected, an alarm sounds in a central command center. Dispatchers notify police and they can post warnings on LED signs letting drivers know of a possible wrong-way driver.
According to Robert Rocchio of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, the system has alerted them of 40 wrong-way drivers in less than a year. "We believe we have saved people from serious injury at a minimum, and maybe even fatal crashes," he said.
The cost to lower signs is a few hundred dollars. The radar system costs about $25,000 per unit. No one from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation would go on camera, but in a statement a spokesperson said: MassDOT made the decision to stay with the low-cost safety approach as the crash avoidance system is costly.
Rocchio and RI State Police officials believe the cost is well worth the investment, particularly because the US Department of transportation estimates the cost of one fatal crash can be well over a million dollars when you add all the medical and legal expenses along with the loss of future earnings of the victim. That is why RIdot plans to add more of these systems in the future. "Even if we save one or two from a serious crash, it paid for the system for several years," Rocchio said.
Both Lynn and Faith hope Massachusetts will take Rhode Island's lead and do more. "They have to do what they have to do to save people because innocent people are getting hurt, or killed," Faith said.
MassDOT crews will install lower signs this spring at dozens of new ramps, including on Route 128 and the expressway. But at this time there are no plans to try the radar detection system.
