MIAMI -- Some drivers here fear I-95 for schizophrenic traffic that plummets from 75 mph and 80 mph to tire-smoking zero, without warning. They fear the long trains of bumper-to-bumper drivers who speed just a few feet apart with no hope of stopping in time.
Mostly, though, they fear trash.Every few months news anchors announce, with gravity but not the least surprise, "There has been another impaling on I-95," from the debris that lies in wait, like booby traps in this concrete jungle, for the unsuspecting.
One of the most recent drivers impaled on I-95 and its South Florida connectors was Chazz Campbell. He was driving home on Sept. 18 when he saw a blur of metal flying at his car. The debris hit the northbound lane, bounced and gouged through the floorboard.
"I felt a hot, burning, numbing sensation in my leg," Campbell said. When he glanced down, he saw he had been skewered. "I had a 21/2 foot metal rod sticking in my leg, pinning me to the car.
"I've seen everything go flying into traffic, everything from mattresses and lawn chairs to car parts and large stones."
In the past year, three people have been impaled by flying debris on I-95 and its connectors between Miami and West Palm Beach. So far, no one has been killed. It happens, drivers here say, because I-95 and its connectors have become a dumping ground, by accident and on purpose.
James Hoffman, a limousine driver, was impaled while driving on an I-95 link, I-595, in April, when a 4-foot iron rod shattered his windshield and bore into his right arm.
Last year, in one of the more terrifying accidents, 13-year-old Stephanie Murray was traveling in the front passenger seat of her mother's minivan when a reinforcing rod flew through the van's windshield, passed through her chest and through her car seat. It came within an inch of her heart, and it punctured her lung. She survived, but she still coughs up blood and has trouble breathing.