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Terrible Car Accident on 98

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Sorry to hear you and your husband went thru this experience. Accidents are scarey, my wife and i were in an 8 car pile up couple of years back and thank god we survived. merry xmas and enjoy the holidays - be carefulk and take care.
 
Oh my! I'm just reading this. Prayers for you, fuzz and the other lady. Take care and keep us posted.
 
SN, so glad you all are okay... What a scary experience! :shock:
I do think those intersections are very wide and at night it probably is tough to see the median unless you know it's there.
Additional lighting should be considered. Wasn't there another accident like this a few years back before the traffic lights went in? Young girls If i recall...turned into the Eastbound lane?

Anyway, everyone drive safe!
 
I can MAYBE understand turning into the wrong road - but from reports, ShallowsNole and Fuzz were not the first vehicle they almost hit and they kept driving. :idontno:
 
It really is a confusing intersection for someone not familiar with the area if heading north on 395 and turning left onto 98. Like SSB said, the intersection is very wide, and the turn is a big obtuse angle. More lights and signage are needed. That being said, every driver is responsible for being extra careful in areas in which they are unfamiliar.

Disclaimer: Not saying that this was the case in this particular incident.

Speaking as a member of the SoWal community, we all are so thankful that ShallowsNole and ShallowsFuzz are okay.
 
I have no idea what caused the driver to go the wrong way, so I am not addressing this specific situation, however I believe very strongly that the extra wide intersection is a serious problem that should be addressed. It took a huge community group taking action to get the traffic lights installed after several people were killed there; maybe it is time to have the community contact the Fl. DOT about reconfiguring that intersection before someone else is killed. Based on some information I have learned from my discussions with some highway engineers, it never should have been built the way it is.
 
Could some striping help?

Yes, I know that intersection isn't great, but at some point a brain is required for driving - and more and more we seem to be seeing just how low we can make the bar and how much we can coddle folks instead of addressing that.
 
I think more striping, or more visible striping, would help. I also agree a brain is necessary and it would help if there was no drinking and driving, but those are things that can only be controlled by the driver; the intersection is designed incorrectly IMO and in the opinion of many who know more about designing intersections than I do...that is something that can be and should be controlled by the people responsible for it...it might even help if there were "caution dangerous intersection" or "caution entering four lane highway"signs placed before the driver gets to the intersection. Something to bring attention to the fact that they need to pay more attention--coming from 395 and turning left/west onto Highway 98 is very confusing in the dark.
Now, why someone would not recognized their error right away and get off the highway is where the brain comes into play again.
 
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There are intersections like 395/98 with signs that say, "ONE WAY. DO NOT ENTER" to warn people who attempt to enter the wrong side of a four-plus lane highway.

The scariest confusing intersection in ATL used to be the southbound HOV exit at Northside Drive from I-75. A bus driver carrying a load of college baseball players supposedly interpreted "HOV exit" to mean that if driving a HOV vehicle, exiting was required to stay in the HOV lane. He took the HOV exit, drove across the overpass, and the bus dropped down from the overpass onto I-75. Several kids were killed.

I just happened to be in the area the next day and drove the same path. I saw that the signage was incomplete and confusing. Wow, have they ever fixed that since then.

I can totally understand how the bus driver got confused. Not to mention that it was dark outside. It's hard enough to drive on the expressways in ATL when you were born and raised there.
 
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