Work to place guardrail where crash killed family of five on Delaware Route 1 has started

Installation of a cable guardrail that will eventually stretch along a section of Del. 1 where five members of one family were killed last summer returning from vacation has started. 

The 11.5-mile installation is part of an $8.5 million project that will lay a high-tension cable barrier along Delaware Route 1. Installation is expected to be completed by December. 

It was not immediately known when the guardrail will be installed along the portion of highway where 61-year-old New Jersey resident Audie Trinidad and his four daughters were killed after their minivan collided with a heavy-duty pickup truck that had crossed over the grass median separating the highway. 

"The contractor is beginning in Smyrna and will work north to Odessa over [the] next several months," said C.R. McLeod, director of community relations at the Delaware Department of Transportation, in an email.

Days after the fatal crash, a News Journal investigation found that a decision to install a cable guardrail along this portion of Del. 1 was given the go-ahead three months prior to the July 6 accident. 

As Delaware Route 1 crossover crash fatalities mount, DelDOT evaluates guardrails

The crash occurred when 45-year-old Alvin Hubbard III's pickup was southbound on Del. 1 in the area of Noxontown Road. At the same time, the Trinidads' Toyota Sienna was traveling northbound.

Hubbard's truck left the southbound lanes and crossed the grassy median into the northbound lanes, police said. His truck hit another car before the Trinidads' Sienna hit Hubbard's truck.

The impact forced both vehicles off the roadway into a ditch, police said. Trinidad and his wife, Mary Rose Ballocanag, were wearing seat belts; none of their daughters were, police said. 

Kaitlyn, 20; Danna, 17; and 13-year-old twins, Melissa and Allison – all were pronounced dead at the scene.

Man involved in Delaware Route 1 crash that killed five faces homicide charges

Hubbard, of East New Market, Maryland, was indicted in November on five counts of second-degree vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault, as well as charges of inattentive driving, driving across a median and failing to obey traffic devices. Hubbard has not yet been arrested or arraigned. 

Guardrails

Across the country, cable guardrails are being used to save lives and reduce costs. The barriers absorb collision forces better than a concrete or metal barrier, thereby reducing the impact on drivers and occupants and the overall severity of the crash, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration.

When Del. 1 was built in the 1990s, safety standards did not require a barrier in the area where the crash occurred. To this day, the grassy 60-foot median in the area of the July crash meets national median-width regulations.

But because accidents still occur, DelDOT has placed guardrails in areas that have been deemed unsafe. At least five times since 2005, the agency put up guardrails following a fatal crash.

The current project began on Dec. 17 and is part of a two-year contract to install guardrail, guardrail end treatments, high-tension cable barrier and high-tension cable barrier end treatments for multiple projects along 17 miles of Del. 1, McLeod said.

When necessary, a left lane closure on the northbound lanes will be occurring when work is underway.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.