Crashes increasing at site of fiery wreck near downtown Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Last week's fiery wreck on Interstate 65 was the latest in an uptick in collisions in that section of the "Spaghetti Junction" interchange, according to WDRB News' analysis of state data.

Jeffery Walker broke his right ankle and sustained other injuries when he jumped from the cab of his semitruck, which crashed on I-65 South at the Jefferson Street ramp around 10:15 a.m. Friday. The truck caught fire before falling off the overpass.

Walker said he was driving the speed limit and not changing lanes when he crashed.

"I really don't know how it happened," he said in an interview while still hospitalized, although he noted that the road surface was wet.

In fact, state data shows six of the eight collisions near the split since the start of 2024 occurred in "wet" conditions. The road's slippery surface is listed as a factor in half of these wrecks.

Police reports also say speeding, inattentive driving, following too close and drivers not maintaining proper control are among the factors in those crashes, which occurred where I-65 begins to curve near downtown.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that the state will move forward with a plan to add epoxy to the road surface "to give the cars better grip."

"We do need people to speed less around that curve," Beshear told reporters at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. "But then we are going to take a look at any other way that we might be able to address the fact that we had some crashes there -- around Derby as well. We want to make sure every road is as safe as they can be.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has installed a technology called "high-friction surface treatment," or HFST, on certain roads in the state for more than a decade, spokeswoman Morgan Woodrum said in a statement.

"To improve safety on our roadways, KYTC will install this same HFST safety enhancement from the end of the Kennedy Bridge to the bridge over Witherspoon Street," she said. "HFST increases pavement friction, particularly when wet weather makes roadways slick, and also helps protect concrete surfaces.

Woodrum didn't say when that work would occur. But she said the Transportation Cabinet is weighing other "safety enhancements" into future work on I-65.

"As always, we urge drivers to obey posted speed limits and use extra caution during and immediately after weather events," she said.

Besides a harrowing rescue of a driver whose semi cab was dangling over the Kennedy Bridge, there were two tractor trailer wrecks on Kentucky Derby weekend in the same area where Walker's truck crashed on Friday.

One of those crashes was attributed to the slick road surface. In the other, the driver was described as driving too fast for the conditions.

A 44-year-old Florida truck driver, Ahmed Ibrahim, died from smoke inhalation and thermal burns after he crashed into a guardrail on I-65 South at Jefferson Street last September.

Walker, of Arkansas, told WDRB that he has driven a tractor trailer through Louisville before. He said he escaped by kicking the passenger door until it opened, then sliding down the semi's trailer before jumping about 20 feet to the ground below.

"I don't want to die," Walker recalled thinking. "I don't want to burn."

No other injuries were reported.

The I-65 split with the Jefferson Street ramp had two crashes in 2023 and one in 2022, according to the state data based on police accident reports. WDRB will continue to analyze the collisions in this area.

The overpasses and bridges in the area were rebuilt about a decade ago as part of the $2.3 billion Ohio River Bridges Project, but there have been safety fixes since the new roads opened.

In 2019, Kentucky officials added pavement markers on the ramp from Interstate 64 West and Interstate 71 South to I-65 South that give drivers more time to adjust as the ramp's lanes narrow.

Driver escapes before semi crashes, falls in flames from I-65 in downtown Louisville