Highway cable barriers saved lives in deadly I-10 bus crash
BATON ROUGE - Questions about what led to a fiery bus crash on I-10 West remain unanswered Thursday night, but there's one certainty so far: steel cable barriers saved lives.
"That's exactly the reason we invested this money into these cable barriers," DOTD's Rodney Mallett said.
The price tag to install them? $90 million.
"We have an anecdotal evidence from State Police and people from the traffic management center of them stopping RVs, big trucks, and today, a bus," Mallett said.
It was four years ago in West Baton Rouge Parish that the same cable barriers stopped another 18-wheeler from slamming into oncoming traffic.
"The tension in them, when they hit, they deflect," Mallett explained. "If they don't prevent a cross-over, it will slow them down."
Today, drivers traveling in the opposite lanes were lucky, but that wasn't the case for two men killed in St. James Parish in October.
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The two men were killed when a vehicle went through barriers in a wreck on I-10 in St. James Parish, according to Louisiana State Police.
Troopers identified the two deceased drivers as a 45-year-old David Curtis and 55-year-old Herbert Fernandez.
"Cross-over accidents can be deadly," Mallett said.
They are currently constructing 90 miles of cable along LA Hwy 90, I-10, and I-12.