After a rash of severe accidents and at least two fatalities on the Interstate 65 detour, area police issued a plea for drivers to slow down and budget extra travel time.
"We've had too many crashes because of impatience," Indiana State Police Sgt. Kim Riley said. "People have to realize that when you have detours, your time is going to be extended."
A 37-mile stretch of northbound I-65 from Lebanon to Lafayette has been closed since Aug. 7, when a contractor and the Indiana Department of Transportation found structural problems on the northbound bridge over Wildcat Creek near Lafayette.
About 26,000 vehicles per day have been routed north off I-65 at the 141 mile marker in Boone County onto U.S. 52, Indiana 28 and U.S. 231 North, back to the interstate at mile marker 193 in White County, according INDOT.
Related stories:
- Wasted time? Commuters talk cost of I-65 detour
- I-65 closure hits truckers, businesses adjust
- Detoured off I-65? Here are some better ways
- Diary of a Detour: Reporter drives I-65 detour route
- INDOT: bridge woes may stem from original construction
- Inspector says part of I-65 bridge in poor condition
- Gas prices rise after problems at Indiana refinery
ISP won't compile a report on the exact number of accidents along the detour route until the end of the month, Riley said.
But a review of crashes in Tippecanoe and adjacent counties offers a sobering picture. Significant accidents include:
• Aug. 11: Two women were hospitalized after a semi driver failed to notice traffic had slowed and rear-ended their car on U.S. 231 near Montmorenci in Tippecanoe County. ISP responded to the wreck.
• Aug. 11: Boone County police reported an accident at Indiana 47 and U.S. 52.
• Aug. 14: A crash at U.S. 231 and Cumberland Avenue sent one man to a hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, according to West Lafayette police.
• Aug. 16: Wilson Usedo, 26, of Lafayette died when his northbound car, for unknown reasons, veered off of U.S. 231 near White County Road 850 West, according to Sheriff Patrick Shafer.
• Aug. 17: ISP responded to a wreck involving injury at the U.S. 231 ramp onto I-65 north in White County.
• Aug. 18: ISP handled a fatal crash involving a semi truck and other vehicles on U.S. 52 at Boone County Road 700 North that caused the closure of north and south lanes of U.S. 52.
Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said he has noticed an increase of traffic coming north on U.S. 421 out of Rossville, through Delphi, then north toward Monticello.
Recently, he said, semi-trailer traffic in downtown Delphi has nearly returned to the higher volumes seen before the Hoosier Heartland highway opened.
Local drivers who typically use state roads carrying the detour traffic, however, now are finding their way on less congested but unfamiliar roads, he said.
"It's a chain reaction, if you will," Leazenby said.
"It's just a matter of slowing down in a lot of situations."
But frustration is mounting as area residents stare at the empty but forbidden lanes of I-65.
Residents have pressed the state to allow local travelers to drive north between Indiana 28 and Indiana 26, Riley and INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield said.
It's not feasible, both men said.
Wingfield cited INDOT's experience in 2013 when it closed Interstates 65 and 70 between the north and south split in Indianapolis but kept the ramps open.
"The trucks took the ramps as far as they could and ended up with tight turns on Fountain Square ... hopping curbs and sidewalks," he said. "It created major traffic problems for people just trying to get downtown to work.
"Our experience is: There is no easy way to filter out the trucks from local traffic."
The designated I-65 detour routes heavy trucks onto four-lane state roads that are better designed than city streets to handle heavy highway traffic, including overweight loads and hazardous materials, Wingfield said.
More than a dozen drivers have been ticketed for disregarding barricades and driving north on the closed interstate lanes, Tippecanoe County Clerk Christa Coffey confirmed.
State troopers are serious about enforcing the closure, Riley said.
"I know it's frustrating," he said. "I have to go around, too.
"If they want to get off in Lebanon, there are a dozen different ways they can get around it.
"But we've got to face reality. The bridge isn't there, and we can't send traffic up to 28 or 38 or 26."
Traffic lights going up at Cumberland
Cumberland Avenue at noon Tuesday was temporarily closed at the intersection with U.S. 231, West Lafayette engineering assistant Ed Garrison said.
Existing safety concerns amplified by the arrival of new Purdue University students prompted the closure, he said.
"With the safety concerns that we've continually had with the bypass going through, and accidents that have happened there recently, we feel it's safest to close it off until INDOT can get the traffic signals operational," Garrison said. "It's getting more and more dangerous, especially with new people showing up that aren't used to that traffic pattern."
Traffic signals at the intersection should be operating by Thursday
, he said.
The city in 2013 asked the Indiana Department of Transportation to install signals at the Cumberland and U.S. 231 intersection.
The request was turned down at the time because the intersection was new, and there were no existing traffic counts, INDOT spokeswoman Debbie Calder told the Journal & Courier last year.
