Median cable keeps wayward semi from hitting oncoming traffic

For more than a quarter-mile, a wayward semitrailer truck weighing 40 tons was held to its side of the busy interstate by steel median cables, sparing peril for motorists heading in the other direction.

The harrowing and potentially deadly events unfolded during Tuesday afternoon's rush hour on Interstate Hwy. 94 south of St. Cloud.

The semi was heading east on I-94 about 5:15 p.m., when it went out of control and entered the median, the State Patrol said.

The truck "hit [the] center median cable barrier and rode the barrier for 500 yards," the patrol said in its report. The cable "stopped the semi from crossing into westbound traffic."

The driver was hospitalized with minor injuries. His truck was totaled, and the bend-but-not-break cables kept other vehicles from getting in harm's way.

Another 20 miles of cable barriers are scheduled to be installed along I-94 between Albany and St. Cloud by this fall, and more are in the works around the state within the next year or so, state traffic engineers said.

Tom Dumont, a traffic engineer in St. Cloud, said that his study of cross-median crashes found that the cables could save one to two lives per year just in his district.

One of those lives could have been a state trooper who, the patrol said, was in the oncoming lanes Tuesday when the semi struck the cables.

"The trooper thought he was going to get hit," said patrol Lt. Mark Peterson, adding that a rock flew up from the median and hit the trooper's windshield. After witnessing the crash, the trooper then wrote it up, Peterson said.

Preventing 'knocks on the door'

In 2005 and 2006, high-tension four-cable median barriers were installed at various points along I-94 from Sauk Centre, heading east to St. Michael. That stretch includes where this crash occurred. Prior to their installation, traffic engineers were seeing an increase in cross-median crashes in the area.

Department of Transportation traffic engineer Bernie Arseneau said today that this and other safety initiatives are being pursued to prevent what he calls those "knocks on the door" that loved ones hear following a fatal crash.

"It's very possible we prevented a couple of these knocks on the door [Tuesday]," he said.

Arseneau said the cable barriers "have been extremely successful. There are many, many lives already saved."

He said that adding more cable barriers is "one of our high-priority initiatives."

Another state traffic engineer, Gary Dirlam in Baxter, called the results of Tuesday's crash "extremely gratifying" and added that the cables are nearly 100 percent effective in preventing deaths, while highway shoulder rumble strips are only 20 to 30 percent effective.

Tops in safety for 3 years

As for the truck driver in Tuesday's crash, Alvin L. Rempel, 71, of Rosenort, Manitoba, remained at St. Cloud Hospital today. He declined to comment and referred questions to his employer, Bison Transport of Winnipeg.

Bison's website says that it has for the past three years won the Truckload Carriers Association National Fleet Safety Award by having the fewest reportable accidents among any fleet in the United States that covers 100 million or more miles in a year.

Garth Pitzel, Bison's director of safety and driver development, said his company is thankful that Minnesota has been installing the cable barriers, noting they have been along highways in Ontario for decades.

"We were involved [Tuesday], but we could've been the truck on the other side of the roadway," he said, adding that the combined weight of the truck and its non-hazardous cargo was about 80,000 pounds.

Pitzel said the truck left the highway for a reason other than driver error, but he declined to say more until further investigation is complete.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482