GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Multiple wrong-way crashes on West Michigan highways are causing some in the community to wonder what's being done to prevent them.
The Michigan Department of Transportation on Monday released a statement saying the state has installed additional safety systems and adjusted signs warning drivers they're headed in the wrong direction.
MDOT says more safety equipment will come when funding is available.
"I think anytime tragedy occurs, especially in multiples like we've seen, it helps us get motivated to to keep people safe," State Senator Mark Huizenga (R-Walker) said.
Huizenga sits on Michigan's Senate Appropriations Committee which would play a large roll in releasing additional funding.
He said any request for funding could likely be met with wide bipartisan support.
"I think if the department would show tools and solutions that they could show would improve this, I think that you'd find that it'd be a very strong bipartisan solution," Huizenga said. "There's obviously strong data to show where these problem areas are. You can't necessarily deploy all these tools at every intersection, every on ramp, every off ramp, but finding areas where there's the most problematic, and that can be the most confusing, would be something that we could target."
For those that have already been impacted, Rob Buchanan at local law office Buchanan Firm said policy can also be changed to help victims whom safety systems didn't protect.
"Within the last couple of years, the laws changed in Michigan," Buchanan said. "So, everyone is supposed to have a minimum of $250,000 in bodily injury coverage. But the problem is people can waive that. So, they get convinced that they can save money on insurance. And so they can opt out of doing that. And so then they're driving around with as little as $25,000 in coverage."
"But that doesn't do much when you're talking about catastrophic injuries that can cause millions of dollars in medical expenses," Buchanan said.
MDOT did not respond to our request for comment on Monday as to how much funding they may look for to install those systems, but Huizenga said he is willing to work with them on solutions.
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