The I-4’s narrow shoulders become even slimmer. This is how you avoid danger. –Orlando Sentinel

Vernon Stewart jumped out of his white pickup truck as cars sped left on State Road 429 at over 70 miles per hour. He stopped to help a man who had run out of gas and was stranded at the exit to Stewart’s right.

“This is the most dangerous type of stop because there is traffic on both sides,” Stewart said as he carefully walked into oncoming traffic to set up traffic cones.

But Stewart, a highway patrolman on the Central Florida Expressway network for more than a decade, said despite the danger, he would rather be here than park on the Florida Department of Transportation’s Interstate 4.

“I will never do another shift on I-4 again,” Stewart said. “The shoulders are just so small and there is so much traffic that it makes my job that much more difficult.”

The shoulders along Central Florida’s busiest road are about to get a lot worse.

I-4 will soon begin a $2.5 billion improvement project aimed at widening 14 miles of the highway that begins near Disney Springs at State Road 536, a 7-mile stretch from Osceola County that includes ChampionsGate and ends at U.S. Highway 27 in Polk County. In order to quickly improve what is now the country’s most polluted corridor, the state is promising to complete the project in just ten years.

But this decade-long construction schedule will lead to even more dangerous conditions along I-4’s already narrow shoulders — which will be reduced to 2 feet on longer stretches, with a concrete barrier separating workers from the lanes.

Roadsides are consistently among the most dangerous places on a highway, with approximately 12% of highway deaths nationwide resulting from fatalities involving pedestrians on the side of the road, according to AAA. Roadside responders like Stewart are the most at risk.

And the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which sets guidelines for shoulder widths, cites studies showing that narrower shoulders significantly increase the risk of accidents. A 2008 study found that cutting the right shoulder from 8 feet to 2 feet could lead to a 13% increase in accidents.

“A wider shoulder gives people more room to walk in, and even if they go off the road, they can recover more easily,” said Raghavan Srinivasan, a traffic research engineer at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center who has conducted research on the issue Shaping shoulders. “If the shoulder is very narrow, they’re probably going to run into something … because beyond the shoulder is something the highway department probably won’t maintain.”

Srinivasan said AASHTO’s guidelines for shoulder widths vary depending on the number of lanes, the number of vehicles moving and posted speed limits. In general, the group recommends that shoulders along major roads be at least 10 feet wide.

But the shoulders along the 24 miles of I-4 that run through Orange County and the 8 miles that cross Osceola are narrower than that guideline in many places. They range from 8 to 12 feet, Matthew Richardson, FDOT spokesman, confirmed in an email. The construction project will make many sections of the route even narrower.

“Sometimes a temporary raised concrete barrier is placed 2 feet from the travel lane to close the shoulder and provide physical separation between traffic and construction,” Richardson said. “This is intended to protect workers in construction zones and increase the safety of drivers during construction work.”

The Florida Department of Transportation Design Manual, the statute for road authorities in Florida, states that roads should maintain full width along their shoulders, but allows for reduction if necessary.

However, some efforts are being made to reduce the danger.

FDOT aims to complete construction of two additional lanes on I-4, which runs from US 27 to east of World Drive, by the end of 2025, ahead of the remainder of the project. This is intended to provide drivers with more space while reducing the number of shoulders along this route.

Laws such as Florida’s recently expanded move-over law can also help increase safety. Since January, the law has required drivers to leave the right lane whenever a car is parked on the shoulder. Previously, drivers only had to pull over and slow down for first responders or law enforcement.

Officials hope this will help reduce the number of shoulder accidents.

According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, there were 170 crashes statewide in 2022 involving drivers not moving across the road and pedestrians or vehicles on the side of the road.

Florida Highway Patrol officers, who also provide roadside assistance, can stop cars that break the law and issue fines. FHP Trooper Migdalisis Garcia said despite the law, the shoulders are still the most dangerous area for anyone on the road, including law enforcement.

“It can happen anywhere where a police officer is working on an accident or conducting a traffic stop and unfortunately the driver doesn’t see them,” Garcia said. “I remember in the academy they said to always stay alert.”

Garcia said distracted driving is often the leading cause of shoulder accidents.

Just last month, a 25-year-old Kissimmee woman died on I-4 westbound from Sand Lake Road after she overlooked an unoccupied, disabled pickup truck parked on the shoulder in a construction zone, according to an FHP report. Her Hyundai Elantra collided with the pickup truck and she was partially ejected, the report said. She died at the scene of the accident.

In 2022, Haley Boggs, a 21-year-old University of Central Florida student, was driving with a friend on a Pennsylvania highway when her car broke down and she tried to pull onto a shoulder. Boggs and her friend exited the vehicle and were struck by a distracted driver. Boggs died of her injuries in the hospital four days later.

“It’s kind of surreal sometimes, to be honest, because you know, I look at Haley’s picture on my phone and I look at her picture every day and it’s crazy that she’s not here anymore,” Haley’s mother said Brook Stealey. “It’s difficult to talk about her accident, but for me and her I know it’s what she would expect from me.”

To honor her daughter’s legacy, Stealey founded Haley’s Light in Central Florida, which seeks to raise awareness of the dangers posed by vehicles and pedestrians on the side of the road.

“We found that a lot of families talk about not texting and driving, not drinking and driving, wearing a seatbelt, all of those things,” Stealey said. “But a topic that isn’t often discussed in families is what to do if your car stalls on the side of the road.”

Haley’s Light sells magnetic flashing lights that drivers can place on the roof of their vehicle in case a motorist needs to stop.

Over the summer, Haley’s Light partnered with CFX to provide these magnetic lights free of charge to impaired drivers on the shoulder. Road rangers, including Stewart, handed out about 1,000 of them.

FDOT Guidelines for Stopping:

Find a safe place. Look for a wide, flat part of the shoulder. If possible, stop with the turn signal on your right shoulder to indicate that you are slowing down and moving over.

Make yourself visible. Turn on the hazard lights and headlights, and if it is dark, turn on the interior lights.

Create space. Leave as much space as possible between your car and the next lane.

Stay safe. Avoid standing near oncoming traffic and keep your car between you and the highway. If you are pulled over at night, turn on the interior lights or reading lights.

Call a Road Ranger If you need assistance, dial *FHP (*347) for the Florida Highway Patrol. Every minute you spend on the side of the road puts you in danger.