Officials increase safety measures after back-to-back wrecks

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN CYNTHIA MARTENS
Emergency responders and state transportation officials are taking action in the hope of preventing the multi-vehicle accidents that occurred on consecutive days in a Marion County construc- tion zone along U.S. Highway 50 last week, killing seven people and injuring five more.

Both accidents occurred within 12 feet of each other-three miles east of Peabody and six miles west of Florence at Milepost 294 on June 28 and 29.

The construction zone, established for routine maintenance, necessitated one-lane traffic, a flagman and a pilot car.

Those two accidents come on the heels of a double fatality in another U.S. Highway 50 construction zone a mere two months ago, May 10, between Peabody and Walton.

“All three times, the accident was a result of a semi running into stopped vehicles,” said David Greiser, Kansas Department of Transportation public affairs manager for District 2 in North Central Kansas.

“How a semi driver doesn’t see other semis that are parked on the road in the middle of the day? I just don’t understand it.”

On the afternoon of June 28, Michael W. Hardwick, 50, of Texas, was driving a semi pulling an empty tanker trailer westbound on U.S. 50. His cruise control was set at 64 mph when he struck a line of cars stopped or slowing to wait for a pilot car.

Trooper Mike Ottensmeier with the Kansas Highway Patrol was on the scene to investigate and talked to Hardwick.

“In his statement to me Monday morning, he told me he saw the construction signs, but he just didn’t realize what was going on ahead of him,” Ottensmeier said.

“He said he just didn’t realize traffic was stopping until it was too late. I asked him if he could tell me what the construction signs said, and he could not tell me that. He could just tell me that he saw the orange signs.”

After obtaining a search warrant from the Marion County attorney’s office, authorities downloaded on-board information from the truck that confirmed Hardwick was traveling 64 mph at the time of impact.

The semi hit the left rear of a full-size Dodge truck that exploded on impact. Area fire departments were called to the scene to put out the fire that killed two individuals trapped in the Dodge.

In a chain reaction, the Dodge hit the rear of a mid-size Ford sedan. After hitting the Ford, the Dodge was pushed underneath a semi hauling a trailer belonging to Dillon’s Corp.

“After impact, the truck was jettisoned forward, and it was on fire the whole way until it went up under the Dillon’s truck, and then it continued to burn,” Ottensmeier said.

The occupants of the Dodge were burned beyond recognition at the scene. They were later identified as driver Cornelius Wall, who had identification papers with both Canada and Mexico addresses, and passenger Cornillus Sawatzky of Mexico.

Hardwick, experiencing chest pains and elevated heart rate, was transported to St. Luke Hospital in Marion and later released.

Those injured or requiring observation were Craig Smith, 56, of Olathe and Vernon Fast, 53, of Hutchinson. Smith and Fast were treated at St. Luke Hospital in Marion and released the evening of the accident.

The following day, workers were back at the construction zone, and a flagman was in place.

“Tuesday’s accident happened right where the flagman was standing,” Ottensmeier said about the late-afternoon fatality.

Driving westbound in a 1997 Freightliner semi, Rich Duncan, 33, failed to stop as he approached a line of cars stopped at the flagman location. The driver’s hometown information was not available from authorities.

The semi hit the rear of a Ford Explorer, propelling it into a ditch. The driver of the Ford, Barbara A. Standierd, 53, of Wichita saw the semi approaching her.

“I know she looked in her mirror and had plenty of cushion,” Ottensmeier said.

“She saw the accident was going to happen. She reacted to the accident and made a defensive position to put her foot on the accelerator of the vehicle and tried to get out of the way. Unfortunately, her vehicle was still hit, but it was spun around and thrown off in the ditch. She walked away from it.”

The semi continued on its forward path and rear-ended an Oldsmobile mini van driven by Victoria Bogner, 43, from Wright, and a Chevrolet Cavalier, driven by John Cafferty, 56, from Wichita.

Occupants in the Bogner vehicle were Gerald Christopher Bogner, 21, and Charlie Michelle Bogner, 17. Sheryll Cafferty, 51, was the passenger in the Chevrolet.

All five occupants in the Bogner and Cafferty vehicles were killed in the accident.

The Cafferty vehicle was propelled into an International truck driven by Andrew Hermstein, 26, of Hesston. Hermstein’s vehicle hit a semi driven by Jerome Heinz, 47, of Wichita.

The semi driven by Duncan came to rest on top of the mini van, and the Cafferty vehicle was pinned between the semi and two other vehicles.

One of the victims in the Cafferty vehicle was not retrieved until 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.

“We weren’t able to gain access to that person (right away),” said Lt. Bruce Hyman with Troop C Headquarters in Salina. “It wasn’t as if we couldn’t find them, we just could not get to them.”

Among those sent to area hospitals for injuries or observation were Duncan, who was transported to Wesley Hospital in Wichita; Standierd, who was taken to St. Luke Hospital; and Hermstein, who was transported to Newton Medical Center.

Following the June 29 accident, construction officials halted work and sent their employees home one day earlier than a prior-scheduled work break.

“After the two accidents, the workers were understandably upset, and they chose to allow those workers to go home and get a week’s rest a day early,” Greiser said.

Construction in the area was scheduled to resume a week later-about the middle of next week.

Reviewing the warning signs in place along the construction area, Ottensmeier said each approach to the site had 6,180 feet of signs.

“The first sign you saw, saying ‘Roadwork Ahead,’ was 1.2 miles before the flag person was standing there,” Ottensmeier said. “And every two-tenths of a mile from the very first sign to the flag person was a road construction sign.”

Greiser said those standard warning signs in place last week were actually extended beyond official requirements.

“After the first accident, we went ahead and doubled the signage and extended the length of the area from where the signing began,” Greiser said. “We went way, way beyond what is required to try to capture the driver’s attention.”

On July 1, KDOT officials reviewed the construction area along U.S. 50 and announced additional changes in the east and west approaches to the work zone when construction resumes.

The warning signs, pilot car and flagmen will still be in place.

In advance of the flagman, barrels will direct traffic onto part of a 10-foot-wide section of paved shoulder where vehicles must pass over built-in rumble strips.

“Those rumble strips are designed so if you start to drift off to the side of the road, they will alert you to bring the car back onto the paved roadway,” Greiser said.

“The semi drivers involved in the accidents have been drowsy. The idea is if someone is drowsy and approaching the work zone, and they don’t see the signs, they will either hit the barrels, which will cause them to wake up-to become more alert-or they will move along with the barrels and cross the rumble strips, which will make them more alert.”

Officials with the Highway Patrol announced last week that they will add extra troopers and increase random inspections of trucks along the U.S. 50 roadway under construction.

Troopers from the Highway Patrol’s Motor Carrier Safety Program will be assigned to stop trucks to check the driver’s condition and log books and inspect equipment, such as brakes and headlights.

Greiser said he was baffled about why three accidents would occur in construction areas along U.S. 50 in about two months.

“It’s a straight line, a clear and open area, extra-extra signing and the sun was shining,” he said.

“Driver inattention can cause an accident anytime, anywhere. Any area is a higher risk area when you have construction.”

He said having two accidents occur two days in a row at the same construction was “a fluke.”

“It’s uncommon, it’s incomprehensible, and we’re doing everything we can to try to help traffic be more aware.”

The two U.S. 50 road-maintenance projects along a 22-mile stretch of roadway between Walton and Florence began in May.

The project between Walton and Peabody is scheduled to be completed in about nine months, and the roadway between Peabody and Florence should be finished by the end of this month.

Describing the Peabody-Florence project as routine maintenance, Greiser said it is one of many projects KDOT is working on across the state.

“What that contractor is doing, within the work area, they are drilling holes throughout the concrete surface and then injecting a polymer through the concrete so that it spreads out under the concrete to stabilize the road,” Greiser said.

“We’re working on every road. You construct it first, but then you have to maintain it. It wasn’t an error in construction. From time to time, we have to go out and mediate any potential for problems so we can extend the life of a roadway and get a longer life for a lesser cost.”

Representatives from the National Traffic Safety Administration asked to interview drivers involved in the accident and on the morning of June 30 were at Markley Service Inc. in Marion, Ottensmeier said.

The week of the accident, Hyman said he was contacted the zone supervisor for the construction area and was told it wasn’t a federal case.

“The only way the federal people would get involved is possibly to look at the highway itself,” Hyman said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with our case. This is still a state case.”

Ottensmeier offered advice to drivers who approach highway construction zones in the future.

“Leave yourself an extremely good cushion if you can-at least two to three car lengths,” he said. “You have to look in your mirror, give yourself two to three car lengths, and give yourself an out. Always be checking your side mirror for the people coming up behind the vehicle behind you.”

Greiser said inattention is the cause of most highway accidents.

“Please, please, please pay attention to the task at hand-which is driving,” he said. “Do not allow yourself to be distracted. When you see construction signs, slow down and take extra care.”

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