To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. -- Department of Transportation officials have come up with a plan they hope will keep drivers from driving off the end of I-540 in Knightdale. Several vehicles have driven off the end of the ramp between I-540 and U.S. 64 east.

"The last crash was two or three weeks ago and it was a tractor trailer that had went off the end of 540 early one morning," said Joey Hopkins, a DOT division engineer.

Crashes, like the one from May 18, prompted DOT and Knightdale town officials to collaborate on a plan of action to make commuters more aware of this sharp ramp.

Some of the alerts were put in place just before the busy holiday weekend.

"The plan of action includes some signing improvements, some additional barricades on the close section of road, which those are already in place,” said Hopkins. “It includes some additional delineator posts to add some more like the post that are already out there and it also includes some rumble strips."

DOT officials said the entire project will cost tax payers between $5,000 and $10,000. Hopkins’ advice to drivers coming through the area in the future is to slow down. "I think it's speed that seems to be the bottom line. That's the most consistent finding we can find from the accident investigation is the speed of the ones that run off the end," he said.

The end of a road town officials hope drivers will now be prepared for.

"I mean we've got five accidents over the past five or six months and so they're willing to try something,” said Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen. “Hopefully that takes care of it and if it doesn't work we'll try something else."

DOT officials have yet to add rumble strips and flexible posts. They plan on making the additions within the next three weeks.