Lexington city council members are looking into additional safety measures to help prevent wrong way crashes. Two separate crashes on Interstate 75 and New Circle Road took the lives of seven people last June. Council Member Amanda Mays Bledsoe placed the item on the agenda of the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee.
“And one of the things that concerned several of us last summer was the head-on collision on the interstate and our office worker Dawn who was hurt on New Circle and how do we think wisely about trying to deter as much as we can at our level and that’s going to take some state participation,” said Mays Bledsoe.
Traffic Engineering Director Jeff Neal said Lexington has 11 interchanges tied to the interstate and another 8 for New Circle Road. Both are state-controlled.
He told committee members double signage, one above the other, offer a broader message. “A lot of time drivers that are intoxicated, sometimes they forget to turn their lights on, and they also are not looking up sometimes. They are kind of leaning forward. So, they found that, that gets a lot more people’s attention and the turnaround propensity is a lot higher.”
Neal said state officials are looking at enhancements that could mean additional or even flashing signage.
