SHERMAN TX-- Safety is always the main concern for engineers when they design road ways. As technologies improve, old roads are brought up to date, in an effort to reduce accidents and save lives.

It is the worst kind of traffic accident.

"Head on Crashes here in the state of Texas account for 15 percent of traffic fatalities," said Carol Rawson, the interim Director for the traffic operations division of TXDOT.

To prevent Future accidents TXDOT will be installing a median cable barricade on Highway 82 from FM 1417 to the Cooke County line.

"This project is part of a safety bond project that we applied for", said Assistant Area Engineer for TXDOT Noel Paramanantham.

The safety bond project has funded more than 700 miles of barricades across the state so far.
Rawson says projects grants are based on several criteria, like how many cars travel on a roadway, and median width, but she says accidents are one of the primary factors.

"We were looking to identify areas that had a crash history of head on accidents," said Rawson.

Highway 82 has had several head on collision in the past and since the road is heavily traveled and has a relatively narrow median.

"We will be starting construction right after Christmas," said Paramanantham.

TXDOT is hopeful that the 17.7 miles of cable barricade will have the same effect in Grayson County as it has had in many other places across the state of Texas.

"In those locations before the barricades went up, we had 18 fatalities and 26 serious injuries, in the locations where the barriers went up, we has none, so definitely it saved 18 lives," said Rawson.