Published: July 14, 2008 08:59 pm      

Cable barriers too late for driver

EDMOND — A $1 million interstate cable barrier project that began last week in Edmond is designed to prevent accidents like the one early Sunday morning that critically injured a Perry woman and left frozen chickens strewn along the side of Interstate 35 and the Sooner Road on-ramp.

Claudia Goss, 55 of Perry was driving a 1999 Honda Accord headed north about 7:30 a.m. Sunday when her vehicle ran off the roadway about a half mile south of Danforth. The vehicle veered to the left, crossed the center median and struck a 2008 Freightliner Tractor and box trailer, according to an Oklahoma Highway Patrol report.

The tractor-trailer rolled onto its side and slid about 275 feet to the west before coming to rest on top of the on-ramp. The top of the box trailer split open, spilling frozen birds across the roadway both in front and behind the vehicle.

St. Anthony Hospital spokeswoman Sheradee Hurst could not confirm Goss’ condition on Monday, saying Goss was not listed as a patient there. The semi driver, Anthony Colonna, 48, of Manchester, Conn., was transported Sunday to St. Anthony and was treated in the emergency room.

Terri Angier, an Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said Monday that the 7-mile cable barrier installation will be from Second Street in Edmond along Interstate 35 to about 2 miles north of the Logan County line. The work on this barrier will not be complete until about the first of September.

“It had started last week, but the crew had started at the south end of the project,” Angier said. A previous portion of the project was finished last week and extends from the Interstate 44 area to the turnpike area.

The state began installing cable barriers along interstates in 2001, Angier said. In February 2007, the state announced a program to significantly expand the cable barriers on interstates.

“Of course, these cable barriers are a great tool,” she said.

But Angier had this caution: “At the time a vehicle impacts these barriers an error has been made. We prefer no contact with the barriers.”

The Lake Hefner Parkway cable barrier in Oklahoma City has been in place for almost seven years and in that time has had a reported 1,000 impacts, preventing vehicles from crossing the median into oncoming traffic, Angier said. One vehicle did break through the barrier in that time frame.

The 7:30 a.m. Sunday accident closed down the two southbound lanes of I-35 for about three hours. Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation rerouted Sunday morning traffic onto Sooner Road, allowing motorists to get back on the interstate at Second Street.

An environmental cleanup crew responded from Guthrie and used a front-end loader to scoop up the ruined birds into a large trash bin.

Other agencies responding to the accident were Edmond Police and Fire departments, the Arcadia Police Department and the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office.