Cable barriers fail to prevent deaths

Scott North, Diana Hefley and Lukas Velush of The (Everett, Wash.) Herald used Washington state transportation data to show that a stretch of I-5 where a cable barrier separates the opposing lanes of traffic may not be preventing as many accidents as other areas. In one three-mile section, "vehicles went over, under or through the cable barriers in seven of 35 accidents along the median ... That means the barriers didn't work in one out of five accidents. The rate is more than triple what the data suggest has occurred along the other seven miles of cabled highway examined." Overall, the cables stopped 91 percent of cars that went into the median.