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'It's just dangerous': Oklahoma intersection where 6 teens were killed has a history of crashes


The intersection between two busy Oklahoma highways, the site of a horrific crash that claimed the lives of six teenagers this week, has a history of collisions and a design that's decades out of date, records show.

Witnesses reported the car carrying the high school students rolled through a stop sign at the intersection and was struck by a tractor-trailer, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Thursday. An investigation, which included an event data recorder taken from the car, was "consistent with witness statements," the agency said.

While detailed records of crashes at the intersection are not fully available, the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office has records showing eight collisions over the past 10 years. It's possible some crashes were investigated by local authorities instead of OHP.

"It's a dangerous intersection, in my personal opinion," said James Brewer, who has owned a business facing the intersection for seven years. "I've witnessed several accidents there, and three of them were fatalities."

The 50 mph intersection joins State Highway 22 and U.S. 377 in southern Oklahoma. Its proximity to a nearby quarry means semitrucks loaded with rock frequently pass through.

"It's on a curve, so you've got limited visibility," Brewer said. "Whenever you come to the stop sign, if you approach it straight on, your visibility to the right, toward Madill, is very limited."

Madill is a southern Oklahoma city near the state's border with Texas.

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The road's design, which includes three intersections joining at highly acute angles, allows vehicles traveling in most directions to continue along their path without slowing down or turning sharply. Two directions of traffic are required to stop.

Current traffic design standards that are accepted throughout the country hold that intersections should be at a 90-degree angle if possible, and no less than 75 degrees. This intersection is at a considerably sharper angle, so much that a car heading east on State Highway 22 has to turn toward the south and pause at a stop sign before rejoining westbound traffic.

The design of the intersection met highway construction standards when it was built, but it's now decades out of date.

Brian Taylor, chief engineer with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, said there remains "quite a few" of these intersections across the state, and many were first designed in the 1950s and '60s.

"This particular intersection was designed in 1965 or before, and it's typical of intersections of that day," Taylor said. "But remember, 70 years ago, the size of a big truck was the size of an F150 (pickup) today."

Not only was the size of vehicles different, so were the speeds at which they could safely operate, he added.

The state transportation department is working with the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Oklahoma's Department of Public Safety in the investigation into the crash.

"The department's heartbroken, certainly for the family and the friends in the community," Taylor said. "And we want to be part of the solution down here."

The NTSB said it sent four investigators and a family assistance specialist to Oklahoma. The team will review the highway layout, environmental conditions, traffic volume and accident histories. The full report, expected in the next 12 to 24 months, will also include an analysis of human performance, the operations of the commercial vehicle and a reconstruction of the crash scene.

A preliminary report is expected in the next month.

Brewer, who has experience driving large trucks through the intersection, said it's easy for drivers to get complacent about checking both ways.

"You have to kind of cut in and turn back in order to be able to see, which is putting you closer to the intersection already," Brewer said. "It's just dangerous. It needs to be changed. There needs to be a traffic light. There needs to be a change made."

Although the state transportation department has no immediate or long-term plans to update the junction, Taylor said he looks forward to having that conversation with investigators and the community.

"This intersection is going to receive a lot of scrutiny," Taylor said. "We're going to be spending a lot of time and attention on all the facts as they come out, and the result of that investigation is something we look forward to reviewing."

Follow Dale Denwalt on Twitter at @denwalt.