Did the design of an exit ramp contribute to a crash that killed six people?
Four college baseball players from northwest Ohio, a bus driver and his wife died this weekend when the bus barreled down an Atlanta exit ramp at highway speed, careened off an overpass and crashed onto the highway below. The bus had no mechanical problems; witnesses said the driver wasn’t distracted by a cell phone or CB radio.
So, what did the driver see? Watch this very short video: A driver’s perspective of the exit.
Evidently, the driver never knew he was on an offramp until just before the crash. So, is there anything in the design of the ramp that is potentially confusing to drivers? (Remember that although the video was taken during daylight hours, the crash happened before dawn.)
A good rule about highway design is overexplain the exceptions. A normal expressway has two or more lanes going in the smae direction with off ramps on the right.
The Atlanta expressway has several lanes. But it includes an HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lane as the far left one, separated by a double-white line. And then the exit goes off to the left.
How could the driver have missed the information that this is an exit ramp?
1) The unspoken “rule” about this highway is that the far left lane is the HOV lane. If an exit opens on the left, it’s easy for a driver to wrongly assume that the new “left lane” an HOV lane, not an exit.
2) The overhead exit sign is white, instead of the standard green. It also doesn’t mention the word “Exit.”
3) At the bottom of this video grab, see the diamond? That’s the symbol for the HOV lane. Why was this symbol on the exit ramp? Evidently, it’s to keep non-HOV vehicles from using this off ramp. But it could also confuse drivers into thinking this is an actual HOV lane on the highway, not an exit ramp.
4) Like the overhead sign, this exit sign is white instead of the standard green. Directional signs are all supposed to be green. White signs are reserved for utilitarian purposes, such as speed limits.
5) There are no yellow “Ramp Speed Limit” signs. They’re common on exit ramps around Indiana. Such signs would have been a needful warning.
6) Finally, here are the first signs that are actually the correct colors. The small yellow signs say “300 FEET.” Not a lot of space to spot a bus.
But place yourself in the position of a driver who missed the previous signs. What would you do if you were driving down the interstate going 65 mph and passed a Stop Ahead sign? Would you doubt yourself? Would you slam on the brakes, or would you think you must have read the Stop Ahead sign wrong?
So, it’s understandable that the driver’s first realization that this is no longer an interstate happens here, at the very top of the ramp, way too late to slow down a speeding bus.
It’s my opinion that using nonstandard colors for the exit signs, along with a lack of extra signage for an unusual exit, may have been a contributing factor in the crash.
UPDATE: A highway sign expert says ramp exit sign could be a “killer.”
UPDATE: DOT plays down exit ramp debate