Seward v. State of Washington / 2018
On October 12, 2013, Skylar Seward became quadriplegic at the age of 15. She was a backseat passenger in a vehicle that swerved into the median of Interstate-5, sliding along a hazardous earth berm and eventually colliding into an overpass column.
WSDOT was expressly directed to install a proper protective barrier at the Center Drive Overpass columns along I-5 at Dupont. The Legislature provided funding for the protective barrier. WSDOT doesn’t know why this barrier was not installed, nor does it have any idea what happened to the money it was provided for the project. Had the barrier been installed on time and as directed, Skylar Seward would be walking today and enjoying life. She is instead wheelchair-bound, requiring 24/7 care for the rest of her life.
Skylar Seward (right)
Complaint
Podcast
News Coverage
Earth Berm Chronology
February 1971
NCHRP Project 20-7 “Earth Berm Vehicle Deflector” – A novel earth berm concept is tested by the Texas Transportation Institute, using a 1.2:1 dirt slope. Five tests are conducted at an approach angle of 15º at speeds of 20, 40 (two tests), 43 and 53 mph. “In two of the five tests, the vehicle became unstable and rolled over (speeds of 40 and 53 mph).” NCHRP Project 20-7, Report No. 627-7
January 16, 1973
Memorandum from Washington State Highway Commission Administrator J.D. Zirkle to R.L. Elwess – Zirkle refers to the concept of an “earth berm treatment that would gracefully divert an errant auto from an object in the median”, and calls for its use. The memo went on to reference an earth berm with a 4-to-1 slope being “negotiable by a high speed vehicle”. The memo was marked up by an engineer with the words “Therein lies the fallacy of the idea. If they are negotiable then the hazard is vulnerable.” WSDOT proceeds with the aesthetic earth berm, in spite of its demonstrated unreliably in redirecting cars at TTI, and with no redirectional testing done on the experimental earth berm in the State of Washington.
February 1973
“Test and evaluation of earth berm median barrier” -- Texas Transportation Institute. 13 tests: speeds range from 20 to 60 mph; approach angle ranges from 7º to 17º. Tests 5, 6, 8 and 9: vehicle went over the top of the berm. Seven out of the 13 would have gone over a berm with the 4-foot design height being used by the State of Washington for its highways.
1989
AASHTO Roadside Design Guide (1st Ed.) is published (“shielding generally required” for bridge piers; “barrier must be structurally able to contain and redirect design vehicle”).
July 19, 1990
FHWA adopts Roadside Design Guide.
1993
National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 350 – “Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features”
1994
AASHTO Green Book (“The term ‘traffic barrier’ refers to longitudinal barriers and crash cushions…. Longitudinal barriers are generally denoted as one of three types: flexible, semirigid, or rigid” – p. 361).
1996
WSDOT plan for installing overpass pillars in the narrow median center for the Center Drive Overpass – No provision made for Jersey barrier or W-beam guardrail at milepost 117.96 for southbound traffic, instead using an earth berm leading up to the overpass pillar. Overpass constructed in 1997.
1997
Triple Fatality at Smokey Point – Earth berm installed at the Smokey Point Interchange on I-5. Rather than redirecting cars, provides a ramp directly into the overpass pillars installed only three years earlier. Three people are killed in the crash.
October 1, 1998
FHWA NCHRP Report 350 Compliance Deadline.
January 29, 2001
Earth Berm Testing at Texas Transportation Institute – Sponsored by WSDOT; Dick Albin (WSDOT) is present for all testing. Tests to be conducted in accordance with NCHRP 350 criteria. The results:
The earth berm barrier did not meet the requirement for structural adequacy for a TL-2 barrier. The earth berm barrier did not contain or redirect the 2000P vehicle. The vehicle rode over the top of the barrier and came to rest behind the installation.
Texas Transportation Institute, NCHRP Report 350 Test 2-11 (February 2001).
May 21 and 22, 2001
Additional Earth Berm Testing at Texas Transportation Institute -- Using the same speed as the January tests (43 mph), but employing a steeper slope; again, failure of earth berm to deflect or redirect test vehicle as required by NCHRP Report 350 test criteria; vehicle rolls over (WSDOT Albin present).
September 2001
Earth berm test failures are reported to WSDOT
April 10, 2003
Earth berm installed in 1989 in the median on SR 522, purportedly to redirect cars away from the overpass support pillars, fails with deadly results.
According to the Washington State Patrol, the earth berm served as a “slight ramp”, sending the vehicle directly into the column. The gas tank explodes, and passenger Robert Merdes is trapped in the burning car. He dies six days later.
December 2003
WSDOT Design Manual – Use of redirectional landform (earth berm) has been discontinued; where earth berms currently exist, WSDOT personnel are to “ensure that the hazard they were intended to mitigate is removed, relocated, made crashworthy, or shielded with a barrier” (emphasis added).
May 11, 2004
WSDOT Inspection: Center Drive Overpass – Bridge columns lack protective barrier for southbound lanes [Landon Exh. #6]
May 15, 2008
WSDOT Inventory: Center Drive Overpass has no protective barrier for southbound lanes [Landon Exh. #7]
June 26, 2010
WSDOT Inventory – Reported on the hazard at Center Drive Overpass [Exh. #6]
2011
Inventory at Center Drive Overpass
October 2011
Preliminary Design, Median Barrier Replacement Project
2012
Median Barrier Replacement Project – WSDOT inspection of Center Drive Overpass site: plans show Jersey barrier only on northbound side (designed by G. Friis; checked by R. Cavanaugh; Project Engineer: M. Nebergall; Regional Administrator: K. Dayton)
October 2012
Median Barrier Replacement Project Complete.
October 2013
Center Drive Overpass support column struck by Volkswagen Jetta traveling southbound on Interstate 5; vehicle enters the median and slides along the earth berm striking the overpass pillar and rendering Skylar Seward quadriplegic.
