The Observation Deck

What IS it about the 1-mile stretch of I-90 westbound from Warren to McKinley that makes it so damn dangerous??

This is HORRIBLE, to lose two police officers in the same manner at the same location in two (or is it three) weeks. What a horrible way to die, and a horrid, heartbreaking loss for their families and colleagues. I cannot even BEGIN to imagine that.

I had heard, though I do not know if it is true, that the Ohio Highway Patrol purposely does not patrol this stretch of road because it is so dangerous for troopers to monitor.

So, what IS it? What can be changed?

Speed and surface:

Can we change the speed limit to 40 or 50 mph through all Lakewood on I-90?? (With sufficient warning [westbound] before W. 117 and between Hilliard/Wooster entrance and McKinley [eastbound]).

Can they grind rumble strips (like Dead Man's Curve) from Bunts to Warren, to slow traffic?

Can they mechanically roughen the current surface, or (later) repave it with rougher concrete, so it is annoying to drive too fast?

Lighting:

Are all the overhead street lights working properly?

When there is an accident is it possible to park a pickup truck (or two) with one of those huge lighted arrow signs - WAY ahead of the accident? Like, at Bunts?

(Though - if someone can't see that huge firetruck with its enormous brilliant yellow light - I don't know what to say about that.)

Signage:

The leftward curve of the road from Warren to McKinley, may make it difficult for someone in the left lane to see what is in that same lane on the outbound side of that curve. I'm not suggesting the curve of the road can be changed, but what else can be done?

Can they add big signs "DANGEROUS CURVE AHEAD" or "HIGH ACCIDENT AREA" or "SLOW DOWN" with yellow flashers.

Can they put a series of yellow "SLOW DOWN" warning lights alongside the underside of the Warren Road bridge above all the lanes, and/or near Bunts.

Drivers licenses:

At a higher administrative level, do we need an additional grade of drivers license, with the highway grade requiring medical/alcohol/drug testing and more extensive road testing?

Do we need different-colored license plates to signify highway-authorized driver? Or local-only, not highway?

Please help:

Can somebody knowledgeable please address this problem and DO SOMETHING to FIX it??

Marguerite Harkness wrote: Speed and surface:
Lighting:
Signage:
Drivers licenses:

Please help:

Can somebody knowledgeable please address this problem and DO SOMETHING to FIX it??

Marguerite

We actually have a series of bad accidents caused by bad drivers, not bad conditions.

When Ohio State Highway Patrol, Trooper Kenneth Velez was struck and killed, it was said he was in the traffic lane, trying to stop a driver, when another driver swerved around the slowing car and hit him. The driver also later tested positive for heroin. It is already illegal to do Methadone (corrected by Valerie Molinski later in thread), and be intoxicated when driving.

Yesterday there were various accidents in the area, causing distractions, The fire truck had its lights on, and have reflected tape. We may never know why that drive ran into the back of the truck, killing himself and putting another in the hospital.

The guy that hit and killed officer Fahey, probably should have never had a driver's license, though among his many convictions was driving without a license.
Was he on drugs? I am sure we will find out.

What I am getting at is, I am not so sure it is the roadway to be blamed. Everyone should slow down when police are on the side of the road, writing tickets or tending to things. Last night I was waiting to go around a police car, that had someone pulled over. To get past the police car I had to cross a double yellow line, So I slowed and waited for traffic to go by. The person behind me laid on their horn, to the point, the officer signaled him over.

Maybe part of getting a license should be standing by the side of a busy road. People have to slow down around safety vehicles, construction, etc.

Where the firetruck was hit is a pretty open stretch of road. And nearly a mile from where Velez was struck.

Just my opinion.

.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:

Marguerite Harkness wrote:

When Ohio State Highway Patrol, Trooper Kenneth Velez was struck and killed, it was said he was in the traffic lane, trying to stop a driver, when another driver swerved around the slowing car and hit him. The driver also later tested positive for heroin. It is already illegal to do heroin, and be intoxicated when driving.

Yesterday there were various accidents in the area, causing distractions, The fire truck had its lights on, and have reflected tape. We may never know why that dirive ran into the back of the truck, killing himself and putting another in the hospital.

The guy that hit and killed officer Fahey, probably should have never had a driver's license, though among his many convictions was driving without a license.
Was he on drugs? I am sure we will find out.

What I am getting at is, I am not so sure it is the roadway to be blamed. Everyone should slow down when police are on the side of the road, writing tickets or tending to things. Last night I was waiting to go around a police car, that had someone pulled over. To get past the police car I had to cross a double yellow line, So I slowed and waited for traffic to go by. The person behind me laid on their horn, to the point, the officer signaled him over.

Maybe part of getting a license should be standing by the side of a busy road. People have to slow down around safety vehicles, construction, etc.

Where the firetruck was hit is a pretty open stretch of road. And nearly a mile from where Velez was struck.

Just my opinion.

.

To clarify, the driver that hit Officer Velez was not high on heroin. He was on methadone, which was a treatment for an addiction to prescription pills. Methadone treatments do not make you high. BUT.. apparently he was speeding, they think going around 78 mph, when he swerved, and Officer Velez had stepped out into the lane.

It has been stated that Officer Fahey was in harm's way because he was laying out road flares because of a prior accident. It was fairly early in the am and visibility was not great from the rain. It remains to be seen if there were any other circumstances.

But the rest, I agree with Jim. I don't think it is the road. I think it is impatient drivers, distracted drivers, etc... Either way, both are incredible tragedies.

Valerie Molinski wrote:To clarify, the driver that hit Officer Velez was not high on heroin. He was on methadone, which was a treatment for an addiction to prescription pills. Methadone treatments do not make you high. BUT.. apparently he was speeding, they think going around 78 mph, when he swerved, and Officer Velez had stepped out into the lane.

It has been stated that Officer Fahey was in harm's way because he was laying out road flares because of a prior accident. It was fairly early in the am and visibility was not great from the rain. It remains to be seen if there were any other circumstances.

But the rest, I agree with Jim. I don't think it is the road. I think it is impatient drivers, distracted drivers, etc... Either way, both are incredible tragedies.

Valerie

Thank you for the corrections, they have been noted and made in my post (part of the new 2017 Deck)

It is freaking me out, how many people text and drive. I am out driving all over the county, and the number of drivers texting, reading, checking is starting to out number drivers driving.

The world needs to get a hold of itself. We need down time, and chance to do other things that are mundane like driving!

At the next intersection at night, see how many faces are lit up by the little screen as they drive by.

Thanks again for the corrections.

.

To set the record straight, State Highway Patrolman Velez was killed back in September 2016, less than 1 mile away from this recent tragedy. It hasn't been just a few weeks since, thankfully.

As far as the stretch of road is concerned, hard to say if that is the cause. I know from my experience driving westbound, I-90 seems to open up by getting wider just after the Alger overpass. Between Alger and McKinley, the road is 5 lanes instead of the normal 4 lanes to accommodate the on-ramp from Alger and the exit-only lane to McKinley. At the Carabel overpass, the road is 5 lanes across. That may be giving people a feeling that, "hey, there's an extra lane opening up so let's go for it!".

Just a thought.

I did find it curious that the first responders to the initial single-car accident were from Rocky River, not Lakewood. It was a Rocky River fire truck that was hit from behind in the second crash. Officer Fahey, a Cleveland police officer, was killed setting flares to alert drivers of the second crash. Where were Lakewood's rescue teams? Were they not available for some reason, like possibly driving people all over the county (and possibly outside the county) to find a hospital bed for someone? Only then to be caught up in all the paper work after delivering someone to an out-of-town facility and therefore unavailable to help in our own backyard?

Too bad, as well, that the passenger who survived the second crash had to be transported to Metro Hospital (about 7.5 miles away) as opposed to Lakewood Hospital (less than 2 miles away from the crash site).

Perhaps the series of exit lane only exits has something to do with it. Getting on at Warren and McKinley, you have to merge left quickly.

The most recent incident occurred at a no traffic time. There was no urgency to shift lanes.

When I first came to Lakewood, I 90 was just being built. This recent spate of accidents seems to be a freak occurrence.

It's not like "DeadMan's Curve" which was a design flaw.

First off none of these accidents were in Lakewood. The first accident was in Rocky River LFD responded mutual aid to RRFD and was placed inservice by them. While LFD apparatus were returning to Lakewood RRFD Truck 66 was struck by the van. LFD responded back with Car 2, Truck 1, Engine 3 and Medics 1,2 and 4 (this is our standard I 90 response). When LFD arrived on scene LFD personnel extricated the female passenger from the van and the crews from Medics 1 & 4 transported her to Metro. LFD officer in charge requested Engine 3 to be dispatched to assist Police in closing 90 at Mckinley. At that time Medic 3 was dispatched on another medical call. Engine 3 arrived at the Alger on ramp at about the time the CPD officer was struck, Engine 3 then entered on to 90 headed east in the west bound lane to block traffic and protect personnel on the scene and start treatment of the CPD officer. Medic 3 responded from Lakewood ER to 90 LFD Engine 2 and Medic 2 made a U turn from the first accident in Rocky River and responded back to the accident in Cleveland. Medic 3 arrived on the scene the officer was placed in Medic 3 and transported to Metro with Medics from Engine 3. The total time spent from time of call till the officer was in Metro was 24 minutes. The patients were transported to Metro because it is the Level 1 Trauma Center. While all of this was going on LFD also handled another car crash on Lakewood Hts and transported that patient. LFD was able to assist 2 other communities with serious incidents and still we were able to provide service to the citizens of Lakewood. LFD, LPD and Lakewood Public Works crews all responded to assit at these incidents. I am proud of all the the Lakewood Safety forces accomplished dealing with multiple complex incidents on Tuesday morning.

cameron karslake wrote:Too bad, as well, that the passenger who survived the second crash had to be transported to Metro Hospital (about 7.5 miles away) as opposed to Lakewood Hospital (less than 2 miles away from the crash site).

Cameron,

While I want to avoid thread-drifting too much, I will say that I agree. Lakewood was a Level II Trauma Center until Summers & Co. allegedly decanted and stole it, giving it away for free.

I suspect that the twenty-four minutes is not par for the course as far as a MetroHealth Medical Center run. I made a thread back in November regarding seeing a Lakewood ambulance going down W. 117th near Berea and then getting on I-90 (presumably going to Metro) and then seeing the same ambulance again coming up Triskett roughly 40 minutes later, sirens going, probably rushing to a call in Lakewood.

Much like everything else with City Hall, everything would be so much easier if they would release the EMS run logs publically, so all can see the response times and run times. Of course, City Hall chooses to hide behind HIPPA. There is ample case law which states that personal and medical information can be redacted from EMS run logs and the rest must be released. "EMS run reports" is even listed as a record that City Hall keeps in their records retention schedule. I double-checked with the Ohio Attorney General's Office, and they confirmed that while some information can be redacted, EMS run reports must be released and made public.

I will not get any more technical, as I would not want to be accused of giving medical advice without a paramedic license or without M.D. or D.O. behind my name.

scott gilman wrote:First off none of these accidents were in Lakewood. The first accident was in Rocky River LFD responded mutual aid to RRFD and was placed inservice by them. While LFD apparatus were returning to Lakewood RRFD Truck 66 was struck by the van. LFD responded back with Car 2, Truck 1, Engine 3 and Medics 1,2 and 4 (this is our standard I 90 response). When LFD arrived on scene LFD personnel extricated the female passenger from the van and the crews from Medics 1 & 4 transported her to Metro. LFD officer in charge requested Engine 3 to be dispatched to assist Police in closing 90 at Mckinley. At that time Medic 3 was dispatched on another medical call. Engine 3 arrived at the Alger on ramp at about the time the CPD officer was struck, Engine 3 then entered on to 90 headed east in the west bound lane to block traffic and protect personnel on the scene and start treatment of the CPD officer. Medic 3 responded from Lakewood ER to 90 LFD Engine 2 and Medic 2 made a U turn from the first accident in Rocky River and responded back to the accident in Cleveland. Medic 3 arrived on the scene the officer was placed in Medic 3 and transported to Metro with Medics from Engine 3. The total time spent from time of call till the officer was in Metro was 24 minutes. The patients were transported to Metro because it is the Level 1 Trauma Center. While all of this was going on LFD also handled another car crash on Lakewood Hts and transported that patient. LFD was able to assist 2 other communities with serious incidents and still we were able to provide service to the citizens of Lakewood. LFD, LPD and Lakewood Public Works crews all responded to assit at these incidents. I am proud of all the the Lakewood Safety forces accomplished dealing with multiple complex incidents on Tuesday morning.

Chief Gilman

Thank you for the answer and the more complete description of the situation on that terrible morning.

I was woken by the sirens and started to listen to what had to be a nightmare that got progressively bad from all sides.

What happened to the woman transported to Metro, the van looked pretty destroyed.

Thanks again for jumping in.

.

She is still a patient in ICU at metro.
Even though Lakewood had a level II the patients would have still been transported to metro .
And just to point out no one has hidden behind hippa the public records law clearly states that patient care reports are not public record.