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Highway cable barriers saved many lives in deadly I-10 bus crash
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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.
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.
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