Cars can squeeze beneath cable median barriers

Rachel Ashleman feels lucky to be alive.

The 19-year-old Western Washington University sophomore was driving south on Interstate 5, past Arlington, when a pickup veered toward her.

She swerved left. Her car entered the grass median, where a three-wire cable fence should have lassoed it to a stop.

Instead, her Subaru wagon sped under the barrier and continued into the oncoming lanes, where it was nicked by an oncoming vehicle. Ashleman's car spun to a stop on the far side of the freeway, in the grass.

Except for bruises and small cuts, the Shoreline native was unhurt in the Labor Day accident.

But the incident shows the state has yet to solve a longtime safety problem in the freeway between Arlington and Marysville. Five people have died in crossover crashes there in the past three years.

State experts say the cable barriers save lives, snaring more than nine out of 10 vehicles that strike them.

But even while claiming success, a recent state Department of Transportation study also found that 18 vehicles passed through the cables between Arlington and Marysville from 1999 to 2005. Ashleman's has been the only one this year.

This fall, highway officials will try a new tactic — placing a second row of cable fence, parallel to the first, in the hazardous 10-mile stretch near Arlington. And a 12-mile strip of new cable barriers on Highway 12 between Elma and Montesano, finished last month, includes long sections that are double-fenced.

Washington is apparently the first state to try double rows of cable barrier, said Dean Alberson, a safety researcher for the Texas Transportation Institute.

In the past few years, cable barriers have proliferated to about half the 50 states. Wires are much cheaper than steel guardrail or concrete barrier, and they stretch instead of knocking an errant motorist back into traffic.

"It is one of the most soft barriers to hit," Alberson said. "Generally, when you run into cable barrier, your injuries are going to be less than most other barriers today."

That is, when the fence works.

Bottoming out

In Arlington, the main hazard is a slope near the cable barrier.

When a car enters the median, it veers downhill and bottoms out at a ditch. The front end continues its downward momentum. The nose of the car can dip beneath the bottom cable and lift the fence. If so, the car may keep rolling toward oncoming traffic.

Richard Albin, an assistant state highway-design engineer, acknowledged that the fence location at Arlington — close to the ditch — "isn't the optimum place to put the barrier. That's why we're going to the second run."

He said the state didn't know about the problem when it installed the first two miles of cable there in 1995, and more in 2000.

After reports of slip-under crashes in North Carolina, the Federal Highway Administration replicated them in 2004 crash tests. A videotape shows a Crown Victoria sedan, commonly used by police, easily rolling underneath. The same year, Washington ordered its crews to avoid installing new cable barriers next to a ditch.

Of the 18 known break-throughs near Arlington, 11 involved southbound cars that slipped underneath, like Ashleman's.

"For me, it worked out," she said. "But people have died going the wrong way. ... It seems like it should keep all cars out, not most of them."

The state is installing 70 miles of single-fence barrier on several highways, funded by $8.8 million from a recent gas-tax increase.

In many accident-prone locations the cables are an improvement over having no barrier at all — on Highway 12, four vehicles hit the new cables in the past two months, with nobody injured, said project engineer John Hart.

"It probably stands up there as one of the most cost-effective improvements we've ever made," said state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald, who has received testimonial letters from motorists.

But the cables represent a potentially lethal danger for motorcyclists.

"The jury on cable barriers is still out," said Jeff Hennie, vice president for government relations at the Motorcycle Riders Foundation in Washington, D.C. "The cable barriers allow the rider and passenger to pass through in more pieces than they started. We often call them 'baloney slicers' or 'egg slicers,' for obvious reasons."

Such stories amount to "road rumor," because there has never been quantitative research on motorcyclists and cable barriers, which are fairly recent additions to U.S. highways, he said.

It's one issue that a new motorcyclists' advisory council will take up with the Federal Highway Administration, he said. One possible improvement would be a "base board" at the bottom of a cable fence, so a biker can drop to the ground and hit the board instead of wires, he said.

Other safety issues

State Patrol enforcement has been stepped up between Arlington and Marysville, where officials report increased traffic and aggressive driving.

"The most important issue isn't the barrier," MacDonald said. "The most important issue is how people are driving."

Ashleman said she was going 70 mph in a 70-mph zone when she lost control of her car. The cable barrier is tested at only a 62-mph national standard.

Sometimes, cars have simply run over the fence.

Seattle attorney Mike Nelson said the DOT should have made improvements near Arlington years ago, instead of allowing inadequate barriers to exist.

He's negotiating a cash settlement for the family of Marijke Holschen, 18, who died when a Ford Explorer smashed through the barrier and hit Holschen's vehicle, also injuring her mother and three siblings.

"Cables don't work. What happens if you zip through the first one and the second ones don't work?"

On March 8, 2000, Rebecca Fuller of Arlington blacked out during what she believes was a diabetic reaction, while driving north on I-5 near home. Her Ford Mustang knocked over 12 fence posts. She continued a mile in the southbound lane, until an oncoming lumber truck slammed her car. Even today, she can barely lift her dislocated left elbow. "The cables didn't break, they just laid down," said Fuller. Her husband, Ron, said the DOT should put in metal guardrail.

Washington highway officials say it's impossible to design a totally impenetrable barrier that's also affordable.

Albin does expect that the second cable fence at Arlington — closer to the southbound lanes — will restrain wayward cars, so fewer slip beneath the original barrier.

Soon, the public will see whether it works.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com