The two friends survived, though Durden's left leg was shattered and is now covered in jagged scars. Her arms still bear the marks made by shards of glass. At 35 years old, she moves like an arthritic old lady. She even lost her job at the chicken spot. "Melvina used to be the life of the party," her sister Charlene says. "Not no more."
Durden filed suit against the FDOT and the company that installed the partitions, Munilla Construction, last year.
George Martinez
Melvina Durden and her attorney, Spencer Aronfeld
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At least one other driver has sued the FDOT over an accident in 95 Express's chaotic early days. Three days after Durden's disaster, a 66-year-old Haitian-American woman named Clara Chery was driving her Toyota RAV4 with her aunt and nephew when she "found herself captive" in the lane, according to a 2010 lawsuit. When she slowed to follow a string of cars weaving out of the lane, she was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer. Chery, who says she suffered permanent injuries, claimed in the lawsuit that the FDOT failed to "maintain the roadway in a reasonably safe condition."
Her attorney, David Hagen, says, "Everyone in that car is fearful of driving the freeway now."
A contract filed as evidence in Durden's suit explains why 95 Express felt like a rush job: It was a rush job. As part of the $121 million agreement with Munilla, the FDOT paid an additional $50,000 for each day the lanes were completed ahead of deadline. "It's a sad example of putting profit over public safety," says Durden's attorney, Spencer Aronfeld. (Munilla Construction's president, George Munilla, did not return a message left seeking comment.)
Even Rory Santana, the candid FDOT district manager, admits "mistakes were made" in introducing the express lanes. He recalls watching cars "swerve all over the highway" on the giant screen in front of his office.
Department spokesperson Alicia Torrez, who declined to comment specifically about the pending litigation, says drivers have come to understand and respect the partitions — and the potential $100 fine for ignoring them.
The FDOT often touts that the 95 Express lanes, by reducing "friction" — cars disrupting the flow of traffic by slowing or stopping — have made the highway safer.
But don't ask for a statistical basis for the claim that 95 Express has reduced accidents. "We don't have any numbers to back that up," Torrez says bluntly. Neither the FDOT nor the Florida Highway Patrol keeps accident stats for the express lanes.
There are telling figures, though. Late every Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, an FDOT truck trawls I-95, replacing the plastic partitions — at a cost of $29 a pop — bulldozed by swerving drivers the week before.
In the total stretch of 16 miles north and south, the workers replace an average of 600 demolished pylons a week.
The FDOT trucks should be mighty busy by 2013, when the 95 Express lanes are set to stretch all the way to Davie Boulevard.
But don't bring your "Lexus lanes" crap to district manager Santana, who's tired of hearing it. "You try moving 300,000 cars on one of the country's biggest highways when you've got idiot drivers swerving all over the place and cutting people off," he rants in his Doral office.
"Sorry," he adds with an exasperated grin. "Now you're getting me fired up."
