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Highway Stretch Not Wired For Alerts

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By RICH SHOPES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 10, 2008

Updated: 01/10/2008 12:11 am

Had Wednesday's crash site been in Hillsborough or Osceola county, motorists might have had some warning.

Instead, cars, trucks and semitrailers slammed into one another in a drawn-out series of accidents across nearly two miles of Interstate 4. The wrecks eventually ensnared about 70 vehicles.

On other parts of I-4 in Hillsborough and Osceola, dozens of video cameras, traffic sensors and electronic message signs advise motorists about accidents and unsafe driving conditions that lie ahead. The Department of Transportation began installing the $100 million system in 2004, an effort that is ongoing.

But the stretch of interstate where the accident occurred, between the Polk Parkway and U.S. 27, has not yet been wired and won't be operational until next January.

The state says the 44 cameras, 130 microwave vehicle detection sensors and 20 electronic signs coming to that section will help keep drivers informed, but stops short of saying the technology would have saved lives had the system been functioning Wednesday morning.

"The best I can give you is a maybe," said Terry Hensley, a supervisor at the department's traffic management center in Tampa.

The gauzy mix of smoke and fog that hampered visibility might have hindered the traffic cameras too, rendering them ineffective. Motorists reported visibility of 5 feet on some stretches, and it was dark when vehicles started piling up before 5 a.m.

"It may have just picked up that it was foggy out there," Hensley said.

In that case, engineers could have looked to sensors that bounce radio waves off cars to judge how quickly traffic is moving.

On monitoring screens back at the traffic management center, the accidents would have shown up as a clump of dots. At that point, the Florida Highway Patrol could have dispatched a trooper or Road Ranger to check the highway.

Absent the technology, officials monitor conditions on I-4 in Polk by driving the highway. About 65,000 to 75,000 vehicles use that stretch of I-4 daily.

The patrol and the Department of Transportation have the authority to shut down a road if conditions make driving unsafe. But before the accidents began, there appeared to be little reason to close the road, officials said.

Troopers driving between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. reported traffic flowing smoothly and only patchy fog, patrol spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins said.

The first accident report came in about 5 a.m. Troopers shut down the interstate between 5:30 and 5:45 a.m.

Once the new technology is in place in Polk next year, engineers will be able to track vehicles from the Sunshine Skyway to U.S. 27 in eastern Polk County. Osceola and Orange counties are wired, which would give engineers access to road conditions from Tampa to Orlando.

Other states also rely on technology to give motorists up-to-the-minute information about driving conditions and traffic problems, including accidents.

For more than a decade, California has used a system much like the one installed in Hillsborough.

"New technology allows us to better manage our roads," said Rose Melgova, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation. "It offers choices for drivers to be smart travelers."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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