Aug 7, 2008 11:02 pm US/Eastern
Metal Road Reflectors Continue To Cause Injuries
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago Investigators have been tracking cases of people who are injured when metal road reflectors come loose and fly into cars. It's something that could happen to any of us, like being blindsided.
WBBM-TV Investigator Dave Savini reports there are more victims and they are asking for help getting the reflectors removed from our roadways.
The Babat family of Lake Forest is still trying to cope with what happened to them in the family SUV last April. On Waukegan Road, heading from Lake Forest to Libertyville, a metal-based road reflector crashed through their windshield.
"Just bam!" Julie Babat described the accident. :It was just a loud noise and the kids started crying. I was crying"
The girls were covered in glass. Their father, Eric Babat, was cut and his corneas scratched. The reflector hit the steering wheel, saving him and his wife, Julie, from worse injuries.
"It's frightening to think of the… 'coulda been,'" Eric Babat said.
In another car last month, the Mitchem family was injured by the same type of reflector while on I-57 near south suburban Matteson.
In 2006, the 2 Investigators first exposed the dangers of these reflectors. That story included Dr. Patricia O'Brien who was severely injured on the Illinois Tollway in 2003.
And last year the 2 Investigators told you about Lou Costabile, who needed 19 facial stitches after being struck by a reflector near Hampshire.
Extreme heat followed by cold compromise the metal-based reflectors. Snowplows and even cars can loosen them, turning them into projectiles.
The Babats say they came back to where they were hit here on Waukegan Road and found 70 spots where reflectors are missing. And they say they removed another 20 pieces that had come loose and were sitting on the road.
The 2 Investigators found more than 100 reports of injuries or car damage in Illinois alone.
Then there is the case of a 7-year-old – CJ Volkman – who was injured in Missouri; and Rosemary Widdles in New York; even a reported death in Kentucky.
"They're just laying out there waiting for somebody to hit them," Eric Babat said.
After the 2 Investigators' original 2006 investigation, Mike Migala started removing broken reflectors from the side of the road hoping to prevent more injuries.
"Once you pointed it out to me, I started looking and they were all over the place," he said.
Migala -- a blacksmith -- knows metal, and how it can rust and break apart.
"It seems strange to me that you would put something like this in the middle of the street that could fly up and crash into a car," Migala said.
Eric Babat couldn't agree more.
"They're playing with people's lives when they leave those out there," Babat said.
Kane County, DuPage County and the Illinois Toll Highway Authority are using, or beginning to use, reflectors made of plastic or tape, not metal.
But counties such as Cook and Will and the Illinois Department of Transportation still use the metal-based reflectors.
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