School Bus Crash Outside St. Louis

**Stressfactor** · 08-05-2010, 12:22 PM

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=129007136

On their way to Six Flags.

DAMNIT!!! That area around Six Flags has been a death trap for years! I used to live in St. Louis and I SWEAR that a year didn't go by without several serious accidents out there and at least one (and usually more) fatal crashes. One year nearly an entire family was killed on their way to Six Flags.

the highway department changed a bunch of stuff out there and swore it would eliminate the fatal accidents but people keep dying getting to the stupid amusement park!

Gah! This makes me sad and upset.

**Flamebird** · 08-05-2010, 01:31 PM

It's really ridiculous. They've been working on that stretch of highway for over thirty years and no matter what they do, it still ends up being a death-trap.

**Stressfactor** · 08-05-2010, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by Flamebird

It's really ridiculous. They've been working on that stretch of highway for over thirty years and no matter what they do, it still ends up being a death-trap.

I know, that's the part that makes me mad. I can't understand why they can't quite get if fixed. I mean, I know that there will always be highway accidents but that stretch of 44 is just ridiculous with them.

I usually go visit family and go with some of them to Six Flags for Fright Fest in the fall and I swear each time we go I keep thinking of all the accidents along there.

**jason hissong** · 08-05-2010, 05:44 PM

My initial reaction was: it's one of my family members.

Then I realized they are all in the Ozarks on vacation.

Then I was still sad and agree that that stretch is Death Trap Central.

**CutterMike** · 08-05-2010, 06:54 PM

What is it about that stretch of highway? Are there more too many on and off ramps too closer together? ...A blind curve that's too sharp? ...A local skinny-dipping hole just off the highway? If accidents are THAT common, there must be something...

**Flamebird** · 08-05-2010, 07:14 PM

Originally Posted by CutterMike

What is it about that stretch of highway? Are there more too many on and off ramps too closer together? ...A blind curve that's too sharp? ...A local skinny-dipping hole just off the highway? If accidents are THAT common, there must be something...

This is a rather simplistic map, that just doesn't show the true horrors of this hwy; but it should give you some idea.

Then there's that whole "St. Louis drivers are mostly idiots" thing, too.

**Mordru** · 08-05-2010, 07:57 PM

In Atlanta a couple years ago Six flags had a big "cheap weekend". The traffic was so bad that parents were stopping on I20 and letting their kids walk the rest of the way...I20 is a freeway...

The following year a kid got killed climbing over a fence into a ride area.

**Stressfactor** · 08-06-2010, 04:52 AM

Originally Posted by Flamebird

Then there's that whole "St. Louis drivers are mostly idiots" thing, too.

You know, I used to think St. Louis drivers were the worst in the world... then I moved to Kansas City.... They're WORSE. At least St. Louis drivers occasionally use the turn indicator. I think Kansas City drivers don't know it exists. And Kansas City drivers not only think stop signs are 'optional', they think stop LIGHTS are 'optional'!

But on the whole, 44 is still a nightmare. My sympathies go out to the family who lost loved ones in yesterday's crash.

**Stressfactor** · 08-06-2010, 04:59 AM

Originally Posted by CutterMike

What is it about that stretch of highway? Are there more too many on and off ramps too closer together? ...A blind curve that's too sharp? ...A local skinny-dipping hole just off the highway? If accidents are THAT common, there must be something...

Aside from Flamebird's map... well, pretty much a LOT of what you posted above.

It's a built up area that wasn't built up when the highway went in. They added on and off ramps rather higgledy-piggledy, there are a lot of surface streets and frontage roads which converse on the area and signage isn't always clear on who and what goes where and who has the right of way. There's ALWAYS construction going on -- which causes slow downs and bottlenecks. The on and off ramps cause congestion, As was mentioned, there's a major theme park in the area and during the summer EVERYONE goes so there's a lot of congestion caused by people getting on and off at the exit ramps to Six Flags, and on top of all of that St. Louis is a city where a LOT of people live in the suburbs and commute to work and 44 is a major route between the city and one group of suburbs so you get a lot of morning and evening rush hour traffic and in the summer you have a lot of young people who are off school and trying to get to Six Flags at the same time a lot of people who are NOT off for the summer and are having to go to work are trying to commute to work.

It gets ugly.

And you can really tell because the vast majority of the accidents happen in the spring and summer when everyone is going to Six Flags and when 'construction season' in the midwest is in full swing. The really bad accidents tend to taper off in the fall and winter when the park shuts down and the construction stops.