Governor (Kansas)

Please e-mail the Governor of Kansas at the address below. Please ask the Governor to remove the illegal and killer guardrails. Tell the Governor to make the roads safe in Kansas.

governor@ink.org (Governor address)

11/3/99

We are sorry to say that we had a call from a law firm and a 5 year old boy was killed on a blunt end guardrail around Salina around Aug. 5th according to the call. We have not confirmed this but do not consider it a crank call. If they had removed the blunt end guardrails in Kansas this boy would probably still be alive.

New Breaking News

(12/27/98)

The guardrail that killed Judy has been replaced with a safe design after nearly 8 years.

(12/27/00)

The guardrail that killed Judy Bird is now replaced with a safer and proper terminal. Thank You Governor Graves.

KDOT has let a Slotted Rail Terminal be installed on 50 highway in new construction when KDOT has adopted the ET-20000 safer terminal. Why would Kansas go backwards in Highway Safety? They still have the bullnose terminals on 69 bypass that do now meet any standards. 9/13/99

Memorandum: Due to the overwhelming request for the September 29, 1994 memorandum signed by Dean Carlson we have decided to put it on the web for easy downloading. This will show everyone what KDOT is not doing in Kansas to make the highways safe and what several other States are not doing to meet the memorandum.

Click here to read or download memorandum

We have heard they may be saying that Dean Carlson signed the memorandum without consent from the Sec. of Transportation. We have a letter from the Rodney Slater thanking us for helping get the memorandum signed. If you need a copy please email us.

November 19, 1999 from Kansas City Star:

Legislative leaders are cautious about using expected extra dollars from the state's highway fund to help alleviate state government's budget crunch.

Duane Goossen, budget director, said he thinks the highway plan will generate more money than originally tought. Estimates of additional highway plan range as high as $475 million over 10 years.

A recent article in Traffic Safety magazine quoated a high official in Kansas saying that "Kansas will not have a bluntend guardrail in 2 years". If they are telling the truth they will have to replace around 3,000 bluntend terminals by October, 2000.

This is our pick as the highway blunder for 1998!
This is on a four lane road: I-70 Several like this:

We have an ET-2000 that is installed in the wrong direction and on the other end of guardrail, a bluntend installed with the direction of traffic. This was probably done during construction but why install a safe ET-2000 for people to use a few weeks and leave a killer at the other end for over 30 years? Why not install the good terminal on the end that gets the traffic all the time. How does this make sense? The bluntend is not allowed on the NHS at this time according to a memorandum signed by Dean Carlson now Sec. of Transportation for Kansas.

Slotted Rail terminal installed in 12/98 on I-70 west of Junction City, Kansas. Kansas adopted the ET-2000 and should not be installing this terminal. The slotted rail terminal is more dangerous and should not be used. We do not know the kill and incap. rate but it will be many times higher than the ET-2000.

Colorado had been installing the Slotted Terminal in all locations. Lets hope they have adopted the safer ET-2000. If any one in Colorado reads this please check it out for us.

Rumble Strips

Rumble strips have been shown to reduce crashes up to 70%, yet many states do not install rumble strips. There was a crash recently at I-435 and Roe in Overland Park, KS where rumble strips would most likely have saved John and Sara’s lives. Rumble strips are a cheap way to save lives. One Secretary of Transportation told us that people do not run off the road in metropolitan areas. It is too bad John and Sara above are not around to answer this comment. Maybe someday we will have leaders that understand what it is like to lose loved ones with substandard engineering.

Roadside Drop off Kills

The maximum legal drop off from the shoulder of the road is 6 inches down and 12 inches out from the edge of shoulder. If there is too large a drop off on the shoulder it makes almost impossible for the vehicle to recover.

The law says that they must have a breakaway light post, yet they are planting large trees in front of the posts. A 3-4 inch tree can kill the occupants in the vehicle. We have written the three cities telling them they were going to kill someone and they install large trees anyway. I guess the main thing is to have a pretty road and to heck with the people. As of 9/3/98 they are still planting more trees on several city roads.

Hole marker on Ironhorse Golf Course in Leawood, KS. They have installed very heavy stones with only a couple of small stones behind them to hold it. We notified the city of Leawood, Ks that these could fall and kill or injure children playing on them.

Kansas Turnpike:
1/8/99

We were told by Mr. Fogo that they would replace the turndown guardrails with new construction and repaving. The turnpike has repaved several miles of roads and have left the turndown guardrails in place. We beg the turnpike to replace these outdated guardrails. According to Texas Trans. Institute there have been close to 1000 accidents on the new ET-2000 and no deaths. Mr. Johnson please give us a brake and make the turnpike safer. The present turndown guardrails on the turnpike have a 15-20% kill and incapacitating rate.

KDOT REMEMBER THAT:

"The bitterness of poor design lasts forever after the sweetness of cheapness is gone"

NOTE: If anyone has proof that any information on the web site is incorrect, please send it to us and the corrections will be made as soon as possible.