Tuesday, September 1, 2009

670 is a Death Trap (and People Can't Drive)

This is from last summer. When I-71 south exits to I-670 west in Columbus, it has a number of problems. The first is that it is a fairly sharp turn with a speed limit of 65 and a short merge into a road where the speed limit is soon to be 65. Once you merge on, there are a number of overpasses and other things to block your view of the signs. Within 200 yards, the far left two lanes form an exit, the far right two lanes are two separate "exit only" lanes leaving exactly two middle lanes that are really 670 (and the signs are behind an overpass). At interstate speeds on an extremely curvy road, you will have approximately 2 seconds to get into the correct lane.

If you do it wrong, the road is a little wet and you have a high center of gravity, here is what happens.

This was a very fortunate accident. The driver (no passengers) escaped uninjured and took off running. It also didn't block the right lane because that is a blind curve and would have resulted in a pileup.

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