Officials Look To Curb Accidents On Dangerous Interstate Overpass

Another vehicle fell off the interstate overpass in downtown Charleston, this time claiming four lives Friday night. Traffic officials are taking a close look at what can be done to make that stretch of road safer. 

 A pickup truck with four young people inside jumped the I-64/77 overpass Friday night, killing the driver and all three passengers when it landed in the state Division of Highways (WVDOH) lot on Pennsylvania Ave. below.  

Two people in a semi truck were critically injured in a similar wreck last week, and in May a vehicle dangled from the overpass – stopped from falling by a metal road sign. 

“Even prior to the most recent incidents, WVDOH engineers have been working to develop a project to install high friction surface treatment on several of the elevated portions of the interstate,” State Transportation Secretary Stephen Todd Rumbaugh said in a statement. “We anticipate having those treatments installed later this fall.”  

Rumbaugh said his department is closely coordinating with the Charleston Police Department to monitor crashes in the area and will determine additional countermeasures that may be implemented as they complete their crash investigations. 

This fall the Department of Highways expects to install high friction “bumpers” that warn drivers when they’re too close to the edge.   

“We can put chevrons, we can put flashing lights and there are a couple of other things we can take a look at but ultimately a large part comes down to driver behavior,” Brent Walker, director of communication for the state Department Of Transportation, said. 

Walker said 94% of crashes are the result of driver behaviors. Police have not yet released a cause of the fatal accident Friday night.