Missouri officials say they are making progress in preventing crossover accidents on interstate highways.

MoDOT has installed about 550 miles of median guard cables on the state’s major highways - including completion of the steel cable system on Interstates 70 and 44.

Last year, one person was killed in a crossover accident on I-70 where the cable was present - in Jackson County - compared with 24 fatalities in 2002, according to preliminary numbers released by MoDOT. There weren’t any on I-44 where there’s cable, compared with 25 deaths in 2006.

Recently, the American Society of Civil Engineers singled out the median guard cables in its 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. (http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/). Among other things, the report stated that the “simple cable barriers lining all highway medians offered a low-cost solution to this problem.” Using three strands of steel cable, the median safety devices catch a car before it crosses into oncoming traffic. The barriers have reportedly caught about 95 percent of the cars entering the median.

At the cost of $100,000 a mile, MoDOT has spent about $55 million on the safety devices.