Indiana State Road 60 is around 60 miles long, a two lane stretch of road winding through the southeast part of Indiana; Highway 60 starts in Lawrence County and ends in Sellersburg, passing through four Indiana counties along the way: Clark, Lawrence, Orange, and Washington. Perhaps you know Hwy 60 from driving on it; maybe you remember it from a couple of months back when a single-engine plane was forced to land on State Road 60 near Sellersburg early on a Saturday morning in August.
Back on August 18, 2012, that plane did cause a small wreck: as it landed, it clipped a pickup truck as the truck was manuevering out of the plane’s way, onto the shoulder of Hwy 60.
However, that small wreck was nothing compared to what Indiana’s Highway 60 can do.
Recently, a television crew from Louisville’s WDRB accompanied police along Highway 60 in their investigation into how dangerous it is to drive that piece of roadway, particularly the section between Sellersburg and Borden. In interviews with those who live along the roadway, they reported that it’s understood that not only will there almost always be a lot of traffic along Highway 60, but that they will be speeding. These residents have seen lots of fatal crashes on Highway 60 over the years.
Indiana State Police report that they are aware of the problem of heavy traffic and speeding traffic on this piece of two-lane highway and they are also aware of the high number of deaths in car crashes on Highway 60. Police are planning to be out and about during the holiday season to try and prevent more deaths in traffic accidents on State Road 60 as the traffic increases even more over the holiday season.
Locals have nicknamed Hwy 60 “Death Row,” and it’s a reputation that isn’t dismissed by Indiana law enforcement that have to deal with the traffic issues of the two-lane highway. However, right now the only things that seem to be happening are that Indiana State Police are beefing up patrols and urging people to obey the safety and traffic laws.
Which means: be careful if you have to drive on Highway 60 in Indiana, and if you can find another way to get to where you need to be, take it.
