WILLOUGHBY HILLS, Ohio — It's a terrifying the thought — you're driving down the highway at 60 or 70 miles per hour, and the next thing you know, there's another car coming at you head-on. There have been three head-on crashes in just one small section of I-90 in Lake County in the last year.
On Saturday afternoon, a car was traveling east on I-90 when it left the road and drove into the median for several hundred feet. The car then crossed into the westbound lane and struck another car head-on in the center lane of travel.
The Willoughby Hills police chief told News 5 it's not the first time incidents like this happened along the strip.
“We have multiple 911 reports come in of a motor vehicle accident head-on collision on I-90 east right around the 188 milepost,” said Chief Matthew Naegele.
Last year, Naegele and Fire Chief Robert Gandee say they responded to three head collisions all in the same area on I-90, near the split. They attribute the crashes to two major things: driving behavior and speeding.
“We've actually done speed studies which show vehicles and in excess of 15, 20 to 25 miles an hour, per month, per hundreds of thousands of vehicles,” said Naegele.
So in 2022, the departments worked with ODOT to come up with a plan to slow the crashes on the interstate.
“We were informed not too long after the meeting that they had reevaluated it, and they're going to put some type of a barrier up,” Gandee said.
ODOT said the guard rails will be installed in both directions on I-90 near State Route 84 and I-271 starting next year. In addition, Naegele says they are also launching a speeding initiative program.
“The officer is going to be able to activate that laser to verify the speed and then have an option of also taking a photograph of the vehicle,” Naegele said.
Both the police and fire chief just want to see their roads safer for drivers, first responders and residents.
“So it's creating a snowball effect that's making everyone's call volume increase because we're all helping each other out,” said Naegele.
The chief said that the speed initiative could start anyway, and those caught speeding could receive a ticket in the mail.
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