Personal look at danger on I-70

VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Interstate 70 in Indiana is proving to be a dangerous place to drive, after a number of accidents on Interstate 70 in the past month. Many of them were fatal.

So we [Patsy Kelly and Chief Photojournalist Mike Latta] took to the streets to find out what exactly is so dangerous about this highway.

We noticed there were three main issues while driving.

Indiana State Police trooper Hans Novak said on a recent police airplane detail, they looked for speeding drivers. They found were eight speeders in 3 hours they were able to pull over.

On a normal day, Trooper Novak said he could stop between 6 and 8 speeding vehicles on a short stretch of I-70.

When lights are flashing on construction work zone signs, the speed limit is forty-five miles per hour.

But when traffic is down to one lane, I-70 can get a little congested.

Patsy Kelly: “We’ve been driving for about a mile here [on I-70], at about 45 miles per hour, and if you check it out behind us [behind the car], you can see people aren’t too happy with me.”    

If you use the 3-second rule in regards to tailgating, you choose an object up ahead on the roadside.

When the car in front of you passes it, start counting.

You should pass that object no sooner than three seconds before the vehicle in front of you.

When driving at forty-five miles per hour, this usually adds up to around 198 feet.

Distracted driving was prevalent wherever we drove.

Food, drink, phone calls, phone texts, checking my makeup in the mirror, all of these added up to one thing, one big distraction.

At one point, it caused me [Patsy] to hit the skids on the side of the road.

The biggest thing I [Patsy] got out of this experiment was no one is free from the dangers of the road.

But we can prevent them.

Following the laws of the lanes and paying attention to the vehicles around mine [Patsy’s] can make the difference between life and death and keeping your family safe.