Arkansas State Police troopers were sent to 832 interstate wrecks in 2014 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 an estimated $4.9 million in vehicle damage in 2014, according to the police reports.
Kip Diggs, State Farm Insurance spokesman, said accident rates play a role in determining insurance premium rates. He wouldn't provide Northwest Arkansas data, but he said statewide rates increased 2.2 percent between August 2013 and August 2014.
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 Interstate 49 corridor in Benton and Washington counties has 20 projects, including interchange improvements and widening, that are either recently completed, in progress or planned along its 26 miles. The first phase started in 2010, and the estimated end is sometime in 2020.
The 12-foot lanes are narrowed to 11 feet when the concrete construction walls go up, Straessle said. 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 Hughey said can lead to other problems such as ignoring posted construction speed zones.
CRASH BREAKDOWN
Washington County had 466 accidents in 2014, compared with Benton County's 366, but because Benton County has about half the miles of interstate, it had a higher rate of accidents per mile -- 21.5 compared with Washington County's 12.6.
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 2014 crashes that involved 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."
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 in 2014 occurred after the third lane was opened.
Highway Department estimates show about 78,000 vehicles drove that section of road daily in 2014.
Straessle said some drivers like to dart into a third lane, try to pass everyone and then squeeze back in 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 in 2014 between the Porter Road and Johnson exits. About 79,000 vehicles drove that section of road daily that year. 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 in 2014.
"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 that 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 traveled between New Hope and Walton Boulevard/Walnut Street, or exit 85 in Rogers, and 56,000 traveled between Walton/Walnut and 14th Street in 2014.
FATALITIES DOWN
Fatalities along the interstate have dropped despite the increase in wrecks. There were seven fatalities in 2011 and two in 2014. 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 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 in 2014 and 71 times last year, he said.
Barriers are typically used in medians that are less than 60 feet wide and are placed about 10 feet from 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, 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 if drivers aren't paying attention, said Bill Sadler, spokesman for the state police. He said drivers need to put down their phones 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 policyholders.
"It used to be you could set your cruise and just go, but that is not the case today," he said. "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. He said rear-end crashes during rush hours account for about 75 percent of claims his office receives from accidents on the interstate.
Wrecks also take an emotional toll.
Susan Terry of Rogers said she has avoided the interstate whenever possible since an accident in which 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 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."
Metro on 01/03/2016