Cable barriers being installed on Interstate-65 in Ky. a year after accident that killed 5

A year has passed since a median crossover collision along Interstate 65 that forever changed the lives of two Kentucky families that together lost five loved ones.

With installation of the first of two Hardin County spans of cable median barrier beginning this week and work already started on other interstate barrier spans, proponents of cable median barriers hope the project keeps others from dealing with similar loss.

Jennie Maradey, 23, and her father, Dave Lawson, know too well the traumatic possibilities of a lane crossover crash.

On March 19, 2008, while southbound on I-65 between Munfordville and Elizabethtown, Maradey witnessed a northbound pickup carrying Logan County parents David and Madeleine McGrath and their 15-year-old daughter, Megan, hydroplane across a grassy median toward the van she, her mother and twin sister occupied.

"I remember the truck coming at us," Maradey said. "It was raining, but it wasn't like a wall of water that would make you pull over and stop with your flashers on."

Unable to stop, McGrath's cab smashed into the driver's side of the van.

Like Maradey, Cassandra and Myra Lawson wore seat belts, but restraints couldn't save them from the force of the McGraths' truck slamming into the van.

All three McGrath family members, along with Myra and Cassandra Lawson, died in the crash. Maradey suffered only bruises and lapses in memory.

"I started coming to as people were getting there to help. It was before the ambulance got there," Maradey said. "Honestly, I knew what had happened (to her mother and sister), but I denied it."

It was after her admission to Hardin Memorial Hospital that Maradey's dad told her the news. Her twin and mom were gone. According to Kentucky State Police and newspaper articles, the Lawsons and McGraths were among 14 killed in I-65 median crossover wrecks between April 2007 and April 2008. The most recent median crossover fatality in Hardin County involved a former sailor and Kentucky native killed in December at the 98-mile point, just north of Elizabethtown.

Only an adult son of the McGrath family is alive today, Lawson said. He was not in the truck that crashed.

Knowledge coupled with pain thrust Lawson and his daughter into action to keep others from suffering.

"I realized this (effort) needed a face and Jenny and I became the face," Lawson said.

Within weeks of the wreck, the Army retiree turned widower met with state and county leaders from throughout the region as he pushed for immediate installation of cable median barrier.

Armed with traffic data and reports of other fatal crossover crashes, Lawson worked feverishly in pressing state government to take action. A Web site was built and Lawson stood firmly behind his mission not accepting feasibility studies or engineer's plans as answer enough.

"I worked 18 hours or more a day. I got e-mails to about half the House and most of the Senate. And one person responded with action," he said.

Along with a team of supporters for cable barrier, Lawson credits State Rep. Tim Moore with spurring action at the state level.

Within three months of the wreck, Gov. Steve Beshear announced in June a $10 million project to install 44 miles of cable median barriers and another 20 miles of concrete median barriers along most of I-65, through Barren, Hart, Bullitt and Hardin counties. The efforts of the Lawsons had paid off.

"Honestly, I'm surprised," said Maradey, who married last summer. "I thought it'd be a much longer battle. It's definitely a good surprise."

With many more miles of Kentucky road still unprotected by median barrier, Lawson said there's much advocacy work to be done.

"I don't know if it's my job anymore," Lawson said. "Truthfully, I burnt myself out."

Maradey said she's working as an advocate for safe driving and will soon begin speaking about her personal tragedy to traffic school students as part of an online traffic school.

"I think it's easier to relate to a person than a video," she said. "It's more real."

She's also discussing speaking opportunities with the Victims Impact Panel, which recently began in Hardin County as a way to help people convicted of DUI understand potential impacts of crashes. Alcohol was not listed as a factor in Maradey's 2008 crash, but she said she hopes her tragedy can awaken people to general hazards of driving.

A total of 16 miles of cable barrier will be installed in Hardin County, according to Kentucky's Transportation Cabinet. Twenty-eight more miles of cable will be installed in Bullitt, Jefferson, LaRue, Hart and Barren counties, along I-65. Concrete barriers also will be used to prevent median crossover crashes.

Andrea Clifford, KTC spokesperson for the Louisville district, said cable median barriers in Louisville have prevented more than 400 median crossovers since being installed on I-265, I-64 and I-71. Only two of the more than 500 impacts have resulted in a vehicle passing through the barrier, she said. One was a semi trailer, which the barriers are not designed to stop, but often do.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear allotted $10 million for the 44 miles of cable barriers. Bids from companies awarded two contracts to complete the work came in at a cost of slightly more than half of that. The official completion date of barrier work awarded in those two contracts is set for October.

___

Information from: The News-Enterprise, http://www.thenewsenterprise.com