JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Here’s the casualty toll in two KC Chiefs, traffic-related crashes on or near I-435 during the last 13 months:

Three dead; two people with serious brain injuries; a sixth person in critical condition.

Is it time for MODOT and the KCPD to take significant new steps to better control traffic on I-435 in the hours before and after Chiefs’ and Royals’ games?

HELL YES!

Here are the circumstances that have made I-435 a most dangerous place to be before and after events at the Sports Complex:

:: Most people headed to games are in a hurry to get there. Among other things, they’re thinking about how far they’ll have to park from the stadium and how long the lines will be to get through the metal detectors.

:: Because of the amount of traffic, however, everyone has to slow down, and traffic starts to back up.

:: Then, many people behind the back-up — a lot of them racing to get to the game and thinking about the delays they’ll face inside the stadium — are approaching too fast and not paying close enough attention to the traffic flow in front of them.

The result, all too often, is a belated jamming of the brakes and a rear-end, chain-reaction collision.

Chandan Rajanna, left

In all likelihood, those circumstances were involved in the death Sunday of 17-year-old Chandan Rajanna, a Shawnee Mission South senior. And they were factors in his 81-year-old father, Krishna Rajanna, ending up in critical condition, and his sister Lisa Allen suffering a brain injury that, according to The Star, was so serious that family members “are not sure about her recovery.” (The three were on their way to the Chiefs-Bengals game.)

A related factor — frustration at the pace of traffic after a Chiefs’ game — was at work in September 2017, when Terry A. Gray of Independence drove his pickup 90 miles an hour down the 23rd Street ramp and triggered a chain-reaction crash that left two people dead and another with a serious brain injury. (Gray had not been at the game but later told police he was frustrated by the slowdown on I-435.)

Samantha Raudales

The dead in that case were 3-year-old Ryan Hampel of Independence and 16-year-old Samantha Raudales of Shawnee. Samantha’s father, Edwin Raudales-Flores, suffered the brain injury.

Regular readers will recall I wrote several posts about that case and that Gray, 51, died of cancer before he could be held to account on felony charges stemming from the crash.

**

Regular readers also know what a stickler I am when it comes to lawful and careful driving. (For the record, my customary 5-miles-under-the-limit-pace drives Patty and Brooks crazy, and often Patty won’t let me drive when we go out — except after she’s had her wine.)

But even as slowly as I drive and as watchful as I am, I came close to being involved in a crash after becoming enmeshed in hurry-up/slow-down traffic before a Royals’ game earlier this year.

I wasn’t going to the game, as I recall, just heading north on 435, and I was driving 55 or so. I got momentarily distracted by cars speeding past me, and suddenly came upon a slowdown just south of the Stadium Drive exit, where Sunday’s crash took place. I had to brake fairly hard and then looked into the rear-view mirror to see if anyone was going to hit me. Got a break there.

I was irritated for my lack of foresight in that incident, and I could see how easily a crash could occur.

**

So, what can be done?

First, I think MODOT should put more electronic traffic-control signs on I-435, especially northbound. I’d like to see several portable, roadside signs a quarter-mile or so apart. And the slow-down warning should be flashing, not just steadily lit.

Second, KCPD should put a lot of personnel and vehicles, with emergency lights flashing, out on I-435 in the hours before and after games. Flashing police lights are the fastest and surest way to control traffic flow. And the police can do it in such a way that people would actually get into the stadium faster because there would be less stopping, starting and merging. If it costs more money to get more police out there, so be it; taxpayers will just have to foot the bill.

Relative to the second point, I’ve seen how beautifully an abundant police and flashing-lights presence can control traffic at one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the Kentucky Derby. I usually go to the track by way of Interstate 264, Louisville’s “inner loop.” After the Derby, when 150,000 people are leaving the track about the same time, scores of police vehicles are positioned along I-264 and at entrance ramps.

Every time I go to the Derby, I’m amazed at how smoothly and safely the traffic moves along that interstate…It can be done here. It should be done here…before anyone else dies or has his or her brain dislodged on account of I-435, game-day traffic.