Lack of signage before curve likely contributed to fatal accident

An article in the Herald-Leader on March 19, headlined: “Nicholasville teen dies, three hurt in crash in Jessamine County,” states in part:

“Police said that the driver … headed west on Union Mill Road lost control about 4.5 miles east of Nicholasville. It appeared the driver over-corrected in trying to regain control … left the road on the opposite side and hit a tree.”

There was no mention of why the driver might have lost control.

I visited the site the morning after the crash and saw that the loss of control occurred just around a sharp blind curve. There was no warning signage that might have alerted or reminded the driver that a blind curve, one involving perhaps a 90 degree tight-radius change of direction following a lengthy straightaway, was just ahead.

I am concerned that the death and injuries in this crash occurred for the same reason that perhaps 200 or so individuals lose their lives and many others are injured in Kentucky each year: A highway crash associated with a curve where there is no effective warning signage.

After becoming curious in 2002 about numerous crashes at two particular sites, I have studied research and statistics and visited crash sites. I am convinced that many, perhaps most, crashes associated with curves occur because of this unrecognized but critical contributing factor: The absence of effective signage, sometimes no warning at all, before a “blind” curve — one a driver cannot perceive the direction and sharpness of as the curve is approached.

News accounts regarding crashes associated with a curve often state that a driver “lost control,” ran off the road, over-corrected and hit a tree. Police, or other crash investigators, are often cited as believing speed or alcohol, and, occasionally, wet roads, were “contributing factors” in a crash.

Police or other crash investigators do not typically address whether no, or deficient, warning signage might have been a factor in a crash.

This is apparently because specification of warning signage is the purview of engineers pursuant to a provision in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, a federal regulation governing highway signage.

For the police to weigh in on whether absent or deficient warning signage might have been a factor in a crash might be said to involve the police in evaluating engineering work product, something the police might be said to be unqualified to do.

The question seems never asked: Why did a driver lose control?

I am concerned that the driver in the fatal March 19 crash was surprised by a substantial change in the direction of the roadway that could not be perceived on the approach. This problem is particularly acute at night.

Specification, installation and maintenance of warning signage on Kentucky’s state highways are responsibilities of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Union Mill Road in Jessamine County is Kentucky Hwy. 169, a state highway.

I am concerned that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet does not have policies in place that address this problem.

Thousands of people die each year on the nation’s highways just in crashes associated with curves. Effective warning signage is a low-cost remedy for such crashes. But first there must be recognition of the problem.

Not every curve is a problem, but those that drivers cannot perceive on the approach are. If effective warning signage is not in place in connection with “blind”curves, such signage cannot serve its purpose.

This story was originally published March 28, 2018 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Lack of signage before curve likely contributed to fatal accident."