http://www.fwdailynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10577:State-should-provide-overpass-warnings&catid=97:matt-getts (http://www.fwdailynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10577:State-should-provide-overpass-warnings&catid=97:matt-getts)
I believe this is the overpass where the accident happened:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=41.432705,-85.053685&spn=0.012162,0.041199&z=16&layer=c&cbll=41.432979,-85.053661&panoid=TMunkG_VleExd4Qj_9eHdQ&cbp=12,174,,0,0.31 (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=41.432705,-85.053685&spn=0.012162,0.041199&z=16&layer=c&cbll=41.432979,-85.053661&panoid=TMunkG_VleExd4Qj_9eHdQ&cbp=12,174,,0,0.31)
WOW...I can see how, especially at night, someone might not notice the sudden drop.
Maybe INDOT could do something like what Louisiana did on the US 190/UPRR overpass near Livonia when they rebuilt it 20 or so years ago: They extended the inside guardrail approaches to the bridges and basically merged them to the median of the divided mainline. Thusly, any vehicle winding up in the median would be either guided back onto the mainline or terminated before the overpass structure.
Of course, most of Louisiana's RR grade separations are on high structures or embankments, not on such flat ground as that particular overpass.
Anthony
Well, the issue that is key there is true with ANY overpass. It doesn't really matter what's at the bottom whether it's a railroad grade, a highway, a river, or just a valley/ravine. The main thing what can be done to keep vehicles from going down to whatever.
Editorial: Indiana drivers should drive less in medians near railroad overpasses
My answer to Matt Getts' question at the end of the editorial is "no".
I fail to see what the problem was. Unless you were driving on the wrong side of the guardrail, you shouldn't go over the edge. And INDOT already has a barrier there - it's the guardrail!
Lack of familiarity with an area is no excuse whatsoever for ending up in the median on a bloody interstate highway. For pete's sake. If the conditions were whiteout (in which case the interstate should have been closed), ok, maybe, but the other 99.99% of the time only the stupidest of stupid drivers would have ended up in that situation.
Better article idea : "Michigan should make it harder to get a driver's license"