Fatal Car Accident Springfield Mo – Springfield, Mo. () – Police have identified the victim of a fatal crash that slowed traffic on I-44 in Springfield.
The investigating agency, the Springfield Police Department, said the incident happened around 4:30 p.m. Thursday during rush hour and traffic was backed up to five miles in both directions for several hours.
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The crash involved a 2002 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by Smith and a 2020 Freightliner driven by Jasham Singh, 22, of Queens, New York.
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“There were two vehicles on westbound I-44 heading toward Kansas State Highway,” said Cpl. Anna Callaway, an investigative officer with the Springfield Police Department. “It appears the van (driven by Smith) backed up and traffic slowed in front of him. He attempted to change lanes and apparently lost control and collided with a semi-truck.
Police closed one westbound lane and one eastbound lane during the investigation and continue to try to determine the circumstances of the accident.
Police said the crash could have killed more people had it not been for the median cables that prevented the truck from entering the eastbound lane.
“If the cables weren’t there, he would have been involved in oncoming traffic and possibly multiple vehicles,” Callaway said. It probably saved a lot of people’s lives.”
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The role of the barrier cable is very important in preventing intersection accidents because vehicles crossing the median happen more often and faster than you might expect.
“If you think about how fast vehicles are traveling on major highways at a minimum speed of 65, it takes about a tenth of a second to get through if there’s not some sort of barrier to stop them,” said Sgt. Mike McClure of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
“In 2020, they estimate that cables have saved 500 lives and reduced about 1,400 serious injuries,” Callaway said. We had a statistic on I-44 a few years ago that said we had no intersection accidents since the cables were installed.
Missouri has only had cable since the early 2000s. Located mostly in the median of divided highways, they currently make up only about 800 miles of the state’s 33,000 miles of roads.
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At $210,000 per mile, putting them anywhere is too expensive to prioritize roads.
“They look at cost-benefit value,” Callaway explained. “They also look at the history of accidents on that road, the amount of traffic, the speed and things like curves, if it’s a downgrade, prioritizing where they want to go.”
Thursday’s crash happened the same week the Missouri Highway Patrol released the latest data from its 100 Deadliest Days program, reminding drivers that more crashes occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day than any other time of year.
“Statewide, deaths are down three percent from last year,” McClure said. That’s good because 2021 is a nightmare (with 333 deaths).
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