Interstate 49 drivers recognize the blue flashing lights of the Arkansas State Police cars. Troopers were sent to 832 interstate wrecks last year in Benton and Washington counties, averaging more than two a day, according to a review of state police accident reports.
Wrecks increased nearly 63 percent from 2012 through 2014. The cost of all the crashes is high, an estimated $4.9 million in vehicle damage last year, according to the police reports.
See a map of several years of wrecks on I-49 at nwadg.com/i49wrecks.
Kip Diggs, State Farm Insurance spokesman, said accident rates play a role in determining insurance premium rates. He wouldn't provide local data, but said statewide rates increased 2.2 percent between August 2013 and August 2014.
Traffic accidents are going to increase somewhat because of the area's growing population. Benton and Washington counties grew by 4.4 percent from 2012 through 2014, and the number of registered vehicles in the two-county area jumped 28 percent.
Road construction also plays a big role, said Danny Straessle, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department spokesman. The I-49 corridor in Benton and Washington counties has 20 projects, including interchange improvements and widening, either recently completed, in progress or planned along its 26 miles. The first phase started in 2010, and the estimated end-in-sight is sometime in 2020.
The 12-foot lanes are narrowed to 11 feet when the concrete construction walls go up, Straessle said, and the road may make a new curve to allow for construction work or exit ramps may be slightly moved in some areas.
"When there is construction on the interstate, the commute for drivers is not the same," he said. "Drivers are very much creatures of habit."
Jason Hughey, the Highway Department's construction engineer for Washington County, said a lot of the issues caused by narrower lanes is just perception. Drivers may feel more confined and overcorrect if they get close to the wall.
Once the walls have been up for a while, drivers tend to get used to the new conditions, which can lead to other problems, Hughey said, such as ignoring posted construction speed zones.
Crash breakdown
Drivers had more accidents in Washington County last year, 466, compared to Benton County, 366, but the northern county had a higher rate per mile at 21.5 compared to 12.6. The interstate has 37 miles in Washington County and 17 in Benton County.
Most of the area's 832 interstate accidents happened in the main corridor from Fayetteville's southern limit to north Bentonville, but 101 were south of Fayetteville.
Rear-end wrecks accounted for about two-thirds of last year's multivehicle crashes, usually involving two or three cars. A pair of crashes involved seven vehicles.
Joseph Purdy of Fayetteville knows firsthand how a rear-end wreck occurs. He makes the commute from Fayetteville to Lowell for work. He was driving one morning in stop-and-go traffic when he was rear-ended near Springdale's Wagon Wheel Road exit.
"With all that construction on that part of the highway, traffic would just stop dead," he said. "We slammed on our brakes, but the car behind me couldn't stop."
A third lane from the Wagon Wheel exit to Lowell's Monroe Street exit has shortened his 40-minute commute to 28 minutes.
"It's a night-and-day difference. I can't wait until they open the rest of it," he said. "That piece between the J.B. Hunt building to Elm Springs is just the worst part of the drive."
The 108 accidents last year between Springdale's Elm Springs and Wagon Wheel exits were the most between any of I-49's 22 exits in Benton and Washington counties. Drivers had an additional 53 accidents between the Wagon Wheel and Lowell exits. Most of those accidents happened near the Wagon Wheel exit, where the third lane begins.
Construction to widen the road to three lanes between Wagon Wheel and Lowell started in December 2013 and wrapped up in October 2014. One-third of the accidents between those exits last year occurred after the third lane was opened.
Highway Department estimates show about 78,000 vehicles drove that section of road daily last year.
Straessle said some drivers like to dart into a third lane, try to pass everyone and then squeeze back in at the last minute when the road narrows back to two lanes.
"It's part of the changing dynamics to the interstate and goes back to driver behaviors," he said.
The interstate in the northern edge of Fayetteville is another stretch with a high crash rate. There were 146 accidents last year between the Porter Road and Johnson exits.
About one-half of those crashes occurred in the 1.5 miles between the Porter Road exit just north of the ramps to the Fulbright Expressway. About 79,000 vehicles drove that section of road daily last year, and the Highway Department plans to start widening that section and make interchange improvements in mid-2016.
Hughey said the Garland and Fulbright exits basically function as one interchange, and the new design will straighten the road and realign the ramps. There were an additional 35 rear-end accidents on the Garland Avenue ramps; 23 were on the south ramp, which comes off an exit-only lane.
There were 165 accidents on I-49 exit ramps in the two-county area last year.
"I would suspect rear-end accidents on the ramp are likely going to be driver error such as speeding or texting," Straessle said. "Driving is the most dangerous thing most people do during the day, and drivers have to be attentive."
There were 86 crashes last year between New Hope Road in Rogers and 14th Street in Bentonville. Road crews began widening that section in November 2014, and drivers had 33 accidents in the last two months of that year.
About 80,000 vehicles drove between New Hope and Walton Boulevard/Walnut Street, or exit 85 in Rogers, and 56,000 between Walton/Walnut and 14th Street last year.
Fatalities down
Fatalities along the interstate have dropped despite the increase in wrecks. There were seven fatalities in 2011 and two last year. The 2014 fatalities were a single wreck on a wet road and a pedestrian who was struck by a car while helping at an earlier wreck.
Officials point to safety barriers as a reason fatalities have dropped.
Robert Buttgen of Rogers considers himself lucky. He hit the I-49 center cable barrier near Pleasant Grove Road in Rogers in August 2014 when he swerved to miss a pickup that was changing lanes. Buttgen was traveling between 60 and 65 mph.
"I would be dead if the cable barriers were not there," he said. The cables kept his car from crossing the median and into oncoming traffic. He said his vehicle was ripped apart, but he was unhurt.
Straessle said installation of cable safety barriers along 485 miles of interstate and other major highways statewide has lowered fatality rates. Drivers hit the cable barrier 109 times along I-49 in Benton and Washington counties last year and 71 times so far this year, he said.
Barriers are typically used in medians that are less than 60 feet wide and are placed about 10 feet from the edge of the road. Straessle said they are a cost-effective way to prevent crossover accidents. The Federal Highway Administration reports 56 percent of all U.S. traffic facilities involved a vehicle leaving the road and 25 percent are head-on collisions.
The cable median barriers are high-tension steel wires attached to posts, which are designed to corral a vehicle that hits them.
"They are like a spider web. The more it moves, the more tangled up it gets," Straessle said.
Much of the barrier in Washington and Benton counties is coming down and being replaced with concrete walls as the road is widened.
Straessle said widening I-49 into the center costs less because it does not require the state to acquire additional right of way, but it also shrinks the median. He said concrete barriers are the most effective way to prevent crossover traffic, especially when the lanes are close together.
Up to the drivers
The Highway Department tries to make interstate driving safer, from re-striping the lanes to widening the road, Straessle said.
"You increase the capacity by adding another lane. The traffic is already there, and we're playing catch up," he said.
The additional lane should make it easier for vehicles trying to enter and exit the interstate while allowing other drivers to maintain speeds, he said. The widening is also adding an 8-foot shoulder on the inside lanes so vehicles needing to make an emergency stop don't have to make their way across three lanes, he said.
No amount of safety precautions will work is drivers aren't paying attention, said Bill Sadler, spokesman for the Arkansas State Police. He said drivers need to put down the phone and keep their eyes on the road.
"We have to drive defensively and be prepared to react," he said.
Bryan Lewis, an agent with State Farm Insurance in Rogers, said the stop-and-go nature of I-49 driving causes a lot of wrecks for his policy holders.
"It used to be you could set your cruise and just go, but that is not the case today," he said. Lewis has lived in Northwest Arkansas his entire life and remembers that days before I-49 existed.
"I-49 is a huge artery and the improvements are needed. Right now drivers are just having a hard time adjusting."
Drivers should make sure they leave enough room in front of them so they can stop in time, he said. Lewis acknowledged that can be difficult during peak driving times when traffic is slow, and drivers will squeeze into any gaps between vehicles. He said rear-end crashes during rush hours account for about 75 percent of claims coming into his office from the interstate.
Wrecks also take an emotional toll.
Susan Terry of Rogers said she avoids the interstate whenever possible since her accident last winter. She had to swerve to miss a pickup that cut in front of her between Lowell and Rogers.
Terry's teenage daughter was with her during the accident and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She still has problems with her knees, and Terry said she has a bulging disc in her neck that may be accident-related.
"It scares me to even get on it," she said. "People don't know how to use their blinker lights. I'm from New Jersey, so I'm used to the fast pace go, go go. Around you, you really have to pay attention."
NW News on 12/31/2015