The high tension cable guardrails are placed closer to the road because they need to be placed in sub grade to keep their strength. Placing that along the road where the base is already in place is more cost effective. Plus, like someone else mentioned, having that in the middle of the median would cause some minor drainage issues.
If your car is sliding off the road into the cable where it currently is, chances are you would still hit it in the middle of the median as well, especially in snowy conditions. However, if this pileup was on the opposite side of the interstate, nearly nobody would have ran into it. So we can place the cable in the middle of the median where it would be hit from both directions or we can place it on one side where it is hit half of the time.
All in all, seems like a simple decision to me.
If your car is sliding off the road into the cable where it currently is, chances are you would still hit it in the middle of the median as well, especially in snowy conditions. However, if this pileup was on the opposite side of the interstate, nearly nobody would have ran into it. So we can place the cable in the middle of the median where it would be hit from both directions or we can place it on one side where it is hit half of the time.
All in all, seems like a simple decision to me.