LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A man lost his life on the Watterson Expressway Tuesday morning after police said he crossed over a median and into a semi-truck.
Noah Matthews, 20, lost his life near the Brownsboro Road exit.
"That one section of I-264 is the only significant portion of an interstate in Jefferson County with no barrier at all," Jim Hannah, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) District 5 spokesperson, said.
Similar crashes are prevented by cable barriers in the median - so why not this one?
Hannah said the median is too narrow for a barrier. Even a thin cable barrier needs room to give when a car hits it. On top of that, Hannah said the drop-off in the median could be an issue.
"That slope could actually cause vehicle vaulting, which is where it can fly up," he said.
The district made a point of adding barriers to nearly every median in Jefferson County in the 2000s. But Hannah said they have not added any more since 2009.
According to Kentucky State Police (KSP) data, Tuesday's crash was the only deadly crash to cross a median on this stretch of highway since at least 2009.
A solution is in the works.
"District 5 has a future project in the highway plan to reconstruct the interchange at 264 and US 42," Hannah said.
That reconstruction is part of the new Veterans Affairs hospital project and will add a concrete barrier to the median. Though the work could take years, it's expected to begin in 2024.
Once it's done there will still be one stretch of interstate without a barrier in the median: I-64 out by the Gene Snyder.
Hannah said they aren't concerned there because the median is so wide. WHAS11 also checked KSP data and found no one has died from a crash there that crossed over the median in at least the last 10 years.
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