KIBLER, Ark. — One woman is dead, and another was critically injured in a crash on a portion of highway in Crawford County that has a history of bad accidents.
Now the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT) is looking at what it could do to make that highway safer.
On Wednesday (Dec. 9) just before 2:30 a.m. a car ran off the road at a curve on Highway 162 north Cedar Avenue in Kibler and hit a large boulder in the homeowners’ front yard. 20-year-old Odalis Irvin was killed, and driver Grace Murphy was flown to a local hospital.
The Arkansas Department of Transportation will be conducting an investigation into the curve to see if there is anything else they can do to make sure drivers are aware and are safely able to navigate through it.
“We have personnel in our central office in Little Rock that come out and look at locations like this and anything else that might be a problem, that’s just what they do, that’s their specialty. So, we asked them to come look at that and give us some recommendations,” said Chad Adams, ArDOT District Engineer.
Adams says in 1990, ArDOT made improvements to that road. He says prior to that it was a four-legged intersection with more of a 90-degree curve.
“The curve that you see today is a little bit softer," he said. "It has a design speed of 40-miles-per-hour. It has a banking on the curve to address the face that you are making a sharp curve."
The boulders were added to the curve by the previous homeowners after a semi-truck ran off the road into their master bedroom. Back in 2015, two people died when they also ran off the road into the boulders.
The current homeowner, Rick Rector says he’s happy to hear that ArDOT plans to look at doing something to make it safer but it’s unfortunate it’s cost the lives of several people. He says it’s monthly that someone runs off the road in front of his house.
“There has been a motorcycle run off the road here and fell over. There has been other cars slide out here just numerous times," he said. "A month ago someone came around the corner and took out a sign. It’s just constantly coming across the yard."
ArDOT hopes to have those recommendations early next month and once they get those, they plan to implement any changes as quickly as they can.
The Kibler Police Chief tells 5NEWS that the driver of the car, Grace Murphy is in critical condition at a Little Rock hospital.