A Welcome Sign in Texas Kept Getting Hit. TxDOT Wanted Nothing To Do With It.

Until recently, a city situated between Austin and Waco greeted motorists traveling along Interstate 14 with a sign that read, “Welcome to Killeen.” The sign not only welcomed drivers to city limits, but also fertilized a dispute between the city government and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) after it was repeatedly struck by wayward vehicles throughout its lifespan. TxDOT’s inertia in response to this series of crashes exhibits just how narrowly transportation agencies view their commitment to road safety.

“The I-14 freeway goes straight past the sign without any turn. The sign is not especially close to the road. But for some reason, people keep running into it,” reported KCENTV, the local NBC affiliate in 2021. Even after an 18-year-old fatally crashed into the sign, neither the city of Killeen nor TxDOT were willing to take responsibility, though the former had been absorbing the costs of repairs over the years. 

At the time, TxDOT waived all accountability, asserting that the “Welcome to Killeen” sign sits outside of its clear zone. By the USDOT’s definition, the clear zone is “an unobstructed, traversable roadside area that allows a driver to stop safely, or regain control of a vehicle that has left the roadway,” in this case spanning approximately 30 feet. 

TxDOT maintained throughout its communications that repair and maintenance of the sign was the city’s responsibility, since the sign sat outside of the clear zone. Ultimately it was the city that removed the sign in late 2021, at its own expense. 

Accoridng to Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn, however, looking at the sign itself is shortsighted: “The DOT is saying ‘this is not our job because it’s happening outside of our right of way,’ but they’re failing to recognize that they’ve induced the lethal speeds, they’ve created the conditions that have sent not one person but multiple people flying off the road and into the sign.” Between December 2020 and May 2021, locals reported at least four cars that crashed into the sign.

The squabble between TxDOT and the city of Killeen betrays a lack of care that is endemic in the engineering profession, says Marohn. He believes engineers should absolutely be concerned with what happens to those who utilize their infrastructure, investigate repeat incidents, and ultimately “do something about it.”

Strong Towns recently launched the Crash Analysis Studio in an effort to widen the scope of accountability to include factors like road design, something often left out when a crash is assessed by law enforcement. Rather than accept crashes as the exclusive result of driver error, the Crash Analysis Studio entertains the culpability of road design and other factors in order to identify what can be done to reduce the frequency and trauma of future crashes.

“If you’re not concerned with doing everything possible to reduce the amount of crashes on a road you designed, you’re not doing your job,” Marohn concluded. 

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