After working at the Leader for more than 26 years, I plan to retire next year, which I’m both anxious and eager about. I’m a little worried about feeling isolated and bored, at least until I figure out how to fill my time in both fun and productive ways. But, running a newsroom is a busy and sometimes stressful job, so I’m definitely eager to have more free time, especially since my husband and I will soon have our first grandchild to spoil.
Another part of retirement I’m looking forward to is not having to commute every day. Like most people of a certain age, I’m starting to develop cataracts, but my eye doctor says the problem isn’t yet bad enough for the surgery I’ll eventually need. As a result, my vision is not what it used to be, so driving, especially at night, is not as fun at it once was.
Daylight saving time will end Nov. 2, when we turn clocks back an hour, making it darker earlier, which means most of us will soon be driving home from work in the dark every evening, making our commutes more stressful.
Then, there’s all the construction along I-55 between Pevely and Hwy. 67 south of Festus that we’ve been contending with the past year and a half or so. That makes the drive between my Imperial home and the Leader headquarters in Festus even more aggravating.
For the past several months, I’ve stayed away from I-55 and instead take Hwy. 61-67 to and from work. Of course that means my commute takes longer than usual, but I think it’s worth adding a few minutes to my drive to avoid the construction zone, which can be stressful and dangerous.
Recently, two serious accidents occurred on northbound I-55 near Hwy. 67 in the construction zone.
One happened on Sept. 28 when a Louisiana man driving a big rig crashed into a line of several slow-moving vehicles, leaving a Pevely woman and two Tennessee women dead and five other people injured. The truck driver, who said he may have fallen asleep before crashing into the stopped vehicles at 70 mph, was charged with three counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter in connection with the crash.
One week later, on Oct. 5, an Oklahoma man driving a pickup crashed into a car driven by a Festus woman, who was slowing for traffic ahead. That collision caused the woman’s car to rear-end another slow-moving car, and a 3-year-old Festus girl was injured in the crash and taken by helicopter to an area hospital.
Those crashes led some Jefferson County state representatives and others to contact MoDOT to ask if something could be done to make the part of the construction zone near Hwy. 67 safer, and the agency responded by moving the lane reduction in that area one mile south and farther away from a blind hill, improving sight distance along that stretch.
Hopefully, that change will help prevent further crashes in that area. However, the public also needs to do its part to protect both motorists and MoDOT crews.
First of all, people need to pay attention and keep their focus on the road. That, of course, means absolutely no drunk driving. And, if you’re sleepy, you need to stay off the road, too.
People should not text while driving either. Even though it’s now against the law for Missourians to use their cell phones while behind the wheel, I frequently see drivers talking or, worse, texting on them, usually after they’ve crossed into my lane and then swerved back to where they belong.
Other non-driving related activities should be kept to a minimum as well. Years ago I was at an Arnold Rotary Club meeting when a now-retired highway patrol officer gave a presentation about the dangers of distracted driving, and I still remember some of the crazy activities he said troopers had caught people doing while driving, like eating messy tacos or putting on makeup. Strangest of all was the story he told about a person who was pulled over for driving erratically. That driver apparently needed to finish a project for art class and had an easel on the passenger seat and was trying to finish a painting on the way to school. I still have to wonder what kind of grade the student got on that painting.
Drivers also need to pay attention to speed limits and slow down, especially in construction zones. Festus Police have issued more than 700 citations in the construction zone this year, most of those for speeding, Chief Doug Wendel said.
In addition to the construction on I-55 in Jefferson County, construction has been underway on I-55 in south St. Louis County and St. Louis for more than three years now, and my husband and I frequently travel that stretch. We own a property in St. Louis with two houses on it, both more than 130 years old that we’ve been rehabbing and where our son and daughter-in-law live.
During our trips back and forth to that property, we often see drivers who look like they’re racing through the construction zone, speeding and switching back and forth between lanes, despite all the narrow and shifting lanes and concrete medians, barriers and cones. Those drivers make the trip a harrowing one.
As part of my job at the Leader over the past two and a half decades, I have written or edited hundreds of stories about traffic accidents in the paper’s coverage areas. Many of those accidents were caused by drunken, distracted or speeding drivers, and, of course, some of those accidents resulted in fatalities or serious injuries.
We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones, as well as our neighbors and fellow motorists on the roadways, to do better and obey the traffic laws, helping make our little part of the world a little safer.