NEWS

Distractions blamed for I-85 wrecks

Tim Smith
tcsmith@greenvillenews.com

COLUMBIA – More drivers are texting, reaching for something or otherwise become distracted and are slamming into stopped vehicles on Interstate 85 this year, part of a jump in accidents that have produced more deaths and injuries on the Upstate’s major thoroughfare.

According to state accident records provided to The Greenville News by the state Office of Highway Safety and Justice Programs, 408 accidents on I-85 this year have involved a stopped vehicle.

That compares to 314 last year, and the higher number indicates road congestion, construction traffic and distracted driving, according to safety experts.

Ten people have died in South Carolina thus far this year in 1,794 accidents on I-85, compared to four deaths over the same time period last year.

Cpl. William T. Rhyne, a spokesman for the Highway Patrol who commutes daily on the interstate, said the problem is not stopped vehicles but drivers noticing stopped vehicles. He said distracted driving remains a major issue.

“For example, say they are distracted and they come up over a hill crest at BMW on 85 and traffic has come to a stop and they’re driving the speed limit, 60 mph, and they are looking at a text message or their cell phone. The average distraction is about 5 seconds,” he said. “At 60 miles per hour they are traveling 88 feet per second. By the time they look up, they have traveled over 400 feet and they’ve never even looked at the road and they don’t have time to react.”

Rick Todd, the president and CEO of the South Carolina Trucking Association, agrees, saying the biggest complaint among truck drivers is distracted driving among those in cars.

“I see it constantly,” he said. “People just seem to think they can safely text or use that cell phone and drive with one hand, even though it is illegal. That’s probably the biggest complaint our professional truck drivers have is distracted driving by car drivers, because they can see it.”

Distraction is not limited to cell phones but can include anything that takes a driver’s attention away from the road, including music, food or conversation, Rhyne said.

According to the data, there have been 337 accidents so far this year on I-85 involving injuries and another 1,447 with property damage.

Just this week, a woman driver was charged with driving north in the southbound lane on I-85, hitting a tractor trailer, which swerved and struck a car. The woman was injured but not the other drivers. It was at least the second accident involving a wrong-way driver on the interstate this year.

Also this week, two trucks collided on I-85 in Anderson County, killing one driver when an 18-wheeler crashed into a trash truck parked on the side of the freeway.

The latest data, which is preliminary, does not list the cause of accidents. But it does provide the “first harmful event,” conditions that led to the accident.

Those include deer with 10 accidents; movable objects, 59; equipment failure, 10; and rollovers or overturned vehicles, 27.

Congestion on the interstate is a condition that makes mistakes by drivers that much more dangerous, Rhyne said.

Troopers continue to emphasize the top three driving problems: DUI, not wearing seat belts and distracted driving or speeding.

“Ultimately it really boils down to driver responsibility,” he said. “When we have a collision, somebody has made a mistake of some sort and it’s one of the people driving those cars,” he said.

The data shows that most of the accidents occur during morning and afternoon commute times, with more accidents occurring between 3-6 p.m. than any other time.

Drivers using the interstate for commutes should give themselves plenty of time so they don’t feel pressure to speed, Rhyne said.

Steve Phillips, traffic safety manager for AAA Carolinas, said the ultimate source of the increased accidents on I-85 is a better economy and cheaper gas, which is putting more people on the road.

“You have more travelers on the roadways, which is always going to increase accidents and injuries,” he said. “It’s just math. So while you’re seeing the roadways have improved on 85, most of 85 is four-lane one direction, your direct correlation is with gas prices and the number of people traveling.”

Another contributing factor is that more people are buying SUVs and pickup trucks.

“So you have people who haven’t driven bigger vehicles now getting on the roadways and they are not able to control those vehicles because they have been used to driving a compact car,” he said.

Work-zone crashes often occur when there is a changed traffic pattern, Phillips said.

“During the daytime hours when they see workers, people tend to slow down. But when they don’t see workers they tend not to obey that speed limit,” he said.

Lanes and shoulders around work zones tend to be more narrow, so that when drivers make mistakes, “those mistakes are more dangerous,” he said.

According to the Office of Highway Safety, there were seven work zone crashes on I-85 last year and 21 so far this year.

Pete Poore, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said there have been four work zones this year for various projects on I-85 in the district that covers Greenville and Spartanburg counties. He said much of that has been done at night to lessen the impact on traffic.

Next year construction on the I-385/I-85 interchange project will begin, a massive project that will be done in phases over four years.

“There is more road construction improvement work being done and we’re going to be susceptible to those kinds of accidents,” Todd said. “Construction zone safety is going to have to get a greater priority with public education and that requires DOT and contractors to take every means they can. And law enforcement is going to have to help with traffic management.”

What's next after first phase of I-85/385 construction?