Editorial: During construction, tollway designers, drivers both must do more to assure safety
Even in the best of conditions, suburban expressways are dangerous places. Any roadways on which vehicles measured by the ton hurtle along at speeds of 50 to 70 mph are structures demanding respect - both in design and use. For the Illinois tollway, most noticeably along I-90, the current times hardly bring the best of conditions.
Construction along a 30-mile stretch of the busy highway has forced lane closures, temporary reconfigurations and miles and miles of cement barriers. Nearly every major interchange from the I-90/94 junction to Elgin is undergoing massive renovation. In the long term, there is much value in this. In the immediate setting, the circumstances cry out for vigilance - and perhaps more than they're getting - from all parties, tollway users not less than tollway designers themselves.
Recent tragedies have emphasized the critical interdependence of various factors in highway safety - regulation, roadway design and quality and driver behavior. Each plays a decisive role in ensuring that drivers using the tollway reach their designations safely.
It was, for instance, instructive to learn last week of the safety violations cited against the Wisconsin limousine company whose driver struck a construction barrier in March, leading to a fatal crash involving other vehicles and closing I-90 in both directions for two hours. Those violations, at least one of which involved whether the 20-year-old driver even could be driving a limo, can't be directly blamed for the crash, but in conjunction with road alterations during construction and, according to the driver's statements to police, a glaring sun, they may well have played a role.
Our Marni Pyke's In Transit column Monday assesses the number of accidents along the tollway during this construction period. That the figure in 2015 has increased since the construction began two years ago is not surprising. But that the increase verges on 30 percent is at least attention getting. Tollway spokesman Dan Rozek's observation that the total number of "incapacitating" crashes in 2015 was the lowest in seven years is calming, if not comforting, but it doesn't entirely absolve the often confusing, often hair-raising accommodations channeling drivers through lane diversions and ushering them on and off the tollway.
Yes, as Greg Cohen of the American Highway Users Alliance, told Pyke, "driver behavior" is also important here. Despite heavier penalties and increased enforcement, the 45 mph construction speed limit is all but ignored, and driver distraction, inattention or aggression can turn already-dangerous circumstances into outright tragedy in, literally, the blink of an eye.
So, drivers must take some responsibility for their own safety and that of others with whom they share the road. But we trust, too, that tollway managers and engineers are constantly monitoring developments to ensure that complications are minimized and precautions maximized to reduce the potential dangers until the long-term improvements we are suffering all this for are in place.