Additional signs warning drivers that they are traveling the wrong way on exit ramps are being installed and will be finished by the end of the year, the Ohio Department of Transportation said on Wednesday.
Highway signs of all sorts are being upgraded in Lucas, Henry, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Ottawa counties to meet 2012 state standards, said Theresa Pollick, spokesman for ODOT District 2.
Still, the new signs to reinforce which way is the wrong way -- arriving so soon after a spate of deadly crashes this spring that killed six in two incidents -- are likely to attract more interest than the standard-issue, white-on-green signs that hang over interstates.
Three Bowling Green State University students were killed and two others were seriously injured at 2:15 a.m. March 2 when a wrong-way car driven by Winifred "Dawn" Lein, 69, of Perrysburg Township hit them head on as they drove northbound on I-75 south of State Rt. 582. Lein was killed as well.
Then on March 12, Ronnell Richards, 37, and Khary Phenix, 37, both of Monroe, were killed when their car slammed head-on into a cargo truck.
The Monroe men were northbound in the southbound lanes of I-75 near downtown Toledo.
On March 7, Lydia Jablonski of Springfield Township got onto southbound I-475 from northbound State Rt. 25 about 10:40 p.m. She eventually crossed the median and continued on the northbound side before exiting at Salisbury Road, where a state trooper pulled her over.
ODOT crews on Wednesday installed replacement do-not-enter signs at the Perrysbug ramp from which Jablonski began her wrong-way drive.
The new signs and additional signs are a response, in part, to the most recent crashes, but also to past wrong-way accidents.
"We, No. 1, want to make these additional enhancements," Ms. Pollick said. "It's going to be an ongoing process. The [wrong-way] crashes are relatively infrequent, but are more likely to produce serious injuries or fatalities.
"It's going to be something that constantly evolves and something we constantly monitor, as we do after every fatal crash," Ms. Pollick said. "If there's a safety improvement we can make, we're going to look at doing it."
The new installations will include supplemental wrong-way signs mounted on sign posts that flank noncloverleaf exit ramps. The difference is that the new signs will be lower -- 3 feet off the ground.
Drunken drivers are most likely to see signs posted low to the ground, Scott Cooner, a Texas Transportation Institute research engineer, told The Blade in March.
That's because such drivers often use pavement stripes to navigate.
Ms. Pollick said that research indicated such low signs are in the path of a car's headlights, which makes them more visible at night to older drivers and impaired drivers, who look for cues from the pavement ahead.
Where entrance and exit ramps are side-by-side at partial cloverleaf interchanges, new signs will point to the entrance ramp as an enhancement, and arrows on the pavement will indicate the direction of traffic on the ramps.
The additional signs will cost about $25,000, Ms. Pollick said.
In April, state Sen. Mark Wagoner (R., Ottawa Hills) introduced a bill that would mandate a year-long license suspension for the motorist who drives farther than 500 feet on the wrong side of a divided highway. Those who violated the suspension would be sent to jail for a year and fined up to $1,000.
While the legislation does not address preventing wrong-way crashes, "for people who do this, increasing the penalty for driving the wrong way sends the signal that we take it seriously," Mr. Wagoner told The Blade in April. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
A wrong-way driver who killed or injured another person would lose his or her license for two to 10 years. Those drivers violating their suspension could face a third-degree felony, with a three-year prison term and a fine of up to $10,000. A person convicted of wrong-way driving while drunk could face a fourth-degree felony and if convicted receive a six to 18-month prison sentence and a fine of up to $5,000.
Lein, the Perrysburg Township driver in the first wrong-way crash in March had no alcohol or drugs in her system, according to the findings of Dr. Douglas Hess, Wood County coroner. The northbound car she struck was driven by Christina Goyette, 19, of Bay City, Mich. She was a BGSU student as were her passengers.
Ms. Goyette was killed along with passengers Sarah Hammond, 21, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Rebekah Blakkolb, 20, of Aurora, Ohio. Two others in Ms. Goyette's car, Kayla Somoles, 19, of Parma, Ohio, and Angelica Mormile, 19, of Garfield Heights, Ohio, survived their injuries. The young women, members of Alpha Xi Delta sorority, were on their way to Detroit Metro Airport to catch an early morning flight to the Dominican Republic for spring break.
Last week, Maumee Municipal Court Judge Gary Byers placed Jablonski on probation for three years and ordered her to spend three days in jail, three days in a driver-intervention program, and 24 days on electronic home monitoring for her wrong-way trip on I-475 from State Rt. 25. She was ordered to pay a $1,075 fine and court costs, and her license was suspended for three years.
Jablonski pleaded no contest April 24 to operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs and was found guilty. A divided-highway violation was dismissed.
Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com, or 419-724-6182.
First Published June 14, 2012, 5:45 a.m.
