Every four minutes, a car crashes in Kentucky and every 10 minutes someone is injured, according to Kentucky State Police. The state agency also reports that someone is killed in a Kentucky car accident every nine hours and 33 minutes.
An investigative report by NewsChannel 32 looked into the number of accidents in the Louisville Metro area and the actions police are taking to stop these crashes.
There is no doubt that some people are driving recklessly on Louisville roads. According to Brad Dunlap, a long-haul trucker, people are tailgating, speeding and failing to use their signals. Brandy Hull, a Metro resident, said that she sees the same thing as Dunlap when she travels on Louisville’s Dixie Highway. She said that she witnesses people cutting each other off and driving too fast.
Due to the behavior described by Dunlap and Hull, many people have taken to calling the road the “Dixie Die-way.” However, this highway is not the only stretch of road that is dangerous in Louisville.
According to Kentucky State Police, from January 2004 to mid-June 2006, there were 13,815 reported car accidents that injured more than 20,000 people in Jefferson County. During that same time period, more than 200 drivers and passengers were killed.
Louisville Metro police traffic Sgt. Todd Shaw believes that the number of crashes is increasing each year because of the growing population in the area. He said that the higher the volume of traffic, the greater the chances of a crash. Shaw also said that the severity of crashes has to do with reckless driving behavior.
Police also believe that faulty trucks are a factor in numerous accidents. Officers now perform random inspections of trucks on Metro interstates. They are trying to ensure that the trucks’ brakes are working properly and that the loads are secure, which both can cause major truck accidents in Louisville.