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Caution: Dangerous roads ahead
May 20, 2010
Jason Lea and Cassandra Shofar
Staff writers
News-Herald file Firefighters and Ohio Highway Patrol troopers respond to the scene of a five-vehicle crash on Interstate 90 westbound at the 200-mile marker in Concord Township May 10. The crash claimed the life of Painesville resident Kimberly Roberts.
Three weeks ago, Jarrod Bowen was within inches of a crash he never saw coming.
The Willowick resident was almost rear ended on his motorcycle while changing lanes on East 305th Street near the entrance ramp of Route 2.
“I remember as we passed under the bridge, I looked over my left, because I remembered there was a lady behind. I looked back and she was about 20 feet behind me,” recalled Bowen, who is also a motorcycle mechanic. “In the second it took to get to the other side of the bridge, we merged into the lane to go north on 305, and she was right there. She laid on her horn. I looked out. I could have reached out and touched the front of her truck, and she had three kids in the car with her.”
Many are caused by driver inattention. But some intersections are so dangerous that even a careful driver might get caught in a collision.
According to Denise Meehan, the intersection of Auburn and Ravenna roads in Concord Township is like “playing Russian roulette with your life.”
“The intersection was reconstructed a few years ago, leaving major blind spots to your right and left,” the Concord Township resident said. “The worst blind spot is making a left onto Ravenna Road. You literally have to pull into the intersection to see what traffic is coming north on Ravenna Road. The blind spots are hills, the one to the right is the worst.”
Different factors can make an intersection dangerous. Congested traffic, bad visibility, an unusual layout or a sudden merge all can make a stretch of road treacherous.
Bowen said the Route 2/East 305th Street exit is dangerous because of people needing to switch lanes suddenly to get onto the interstate or turn onto side streets. He also thinks nearby traffic lights could be synced better.
Weather affects visibility at the Auburn/Ravenna intersection, Meehan said
“The snow piles up on the berms at least 2 to 3 feet high leaving no visibility in the winter. As for summer, the county waits until the grass is about a foot-and-a-half high making visibility, again, zero,” she said. “It takes several complaints to the county before they will cut the grass. It’s like you are pulling out into the intersection with your eyes closed. I have witnessed several accidents within this intersection, thankfully none were fatal. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, unfortunately, that one will be.”
Ardis Knarr, of Willoughby, said visibility is a problem at the SOM Center Road exit from Interstate 271.
“It is because cars are entering 271 as we are moving to the right, in order to exit 271 to get to 91. The cars coming onto 271 come down an incline seemingly out of nowhere and can come fast and are hard to spot, as I move to the right; and they often want to get to the left,” she said.
Trouble spots
The News-Herald received several replies when it asked readers what they thought were the most dangerous intersections in the region.
While many readers had stories of near misses, and a few hits, some of the statistically worst intersections in Lake County went unmentioned.
The trickiest five county road intersections, according to the Lake County Engineer’s Office, for the time period of 2006-2008 were:
- Chapel Road and Green Road in Madison Township: 22 crashes
- Morley Road and Prouty Road in Painesville Township: 16
- Madison Avenue/Bowhall Road/Boulder Ridge Place in Painesville Township: 10
- Madison Avenue/Park Road in Painesville Township: 9
- Carter Road/Vrooman Road in Leroy Township: 9
However, none of these intersections come close to a pair in Concord Township.
“For overall frequency of crashes on non-county routes within the townships, we would view the intersections of I-90/state Route 44 and state Route 44/Auburn Road as having the highest frequency, 46 and 38 crashes, respectively,” said Traffic Engineer Tracy Salkiewicz of the Lake County Engineer’s Office.
Sheriff Daniel McClelland listed some of the most dangerous intersections in Geauga County: Burton-Windsor Road and state Route 608 in Middlefield Township, Route 322 and Bass Lake Road in Munson Township, routes 166 and 528 in Thompson Township, and Route 88 and Old State Road in Parkman Township.
“I personally remember responding to numerous accidents at each of these locations,” McClelland said.
Dissecting the intersections
The Ohio Department of Transportation and other authorities have worked to make many of these dangerous intersections safer in recent years.
The Interstate 90-Route 44-Auburn Road cluster has been the subject of study to identify possible improvements, Salkiewicz said.
Each of the four intersections McClelland listed have had improvements in the last decade.
Full-function stop lights were added at Route 322/Bass Lake and Route 88/Old State Road intersections.
ODOT installed solar-powered, illuminated stop signs at Burton-Windsor/Route 608 and Route 166/528 intersections.
“The new signs have LED lights on the perimeter and are very attention-getting,” McClelland said.
ODOT added rumble strips and stop ahead signs at Route 166/528 intersection.
Fewer fatalities
One bright note in all this talk of dangerous roads is the number of traffic fatalities reached a historic low in 2009.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Jim Sivak credited education and enforcement for the drop.
In 2009, 1,029 people died in motor vehicle crashes. That’s a 14 percent decline from the previous low of 1,191 fatalities, which was registered in 2008.
Last year, the Ohio State Highway Patrol saw declines in most categories — fatal crashes, motorcycle fatalities and alcohol-related deaths.
“During the past decade, Ohio has experienced a nearly 30 percent reduction in motor vehicle fatalities. Ohio’s traffic safety progress can be attributed to the education, enforcement and engineering by all of our traffic safety and law enforcement partners,” said Cathy Collins-Taylor, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
Last year, there were nine traffic fatalities in Lake County and seven in Geauga, according to OSHP statistics. That is a drop from 13 and 10 deaths in Lake and Geauga, respectively, in 2008.
As of May 11, Lake County is one fatal crash ahead of last year. Geauga County is on par with the historic low of 2009.
Fixing problems as they arise
As old intersections are made safer, others become more dangerous.
“As traffic volume increases over the years and as traffic patterns change, our highways and intersections are handling more cars,” McClelland said. “We have also experienced changes in commercial and residential areas as a result of new building. These can have a great effect on traffic counts as well as they can create big potential visual obstructions or new points of ingress and egress from parking lots. Intersections that were not as ‘dangerous’ may now become dangerous.”
Both professionals and readers have made suggestions on ways to make these new, dangerous intersections safer.
Meehan recommended smoothing out the roads, keeping the grass cut and trying to remove the snow near the Auburn/Ravenna intersection so drivers could see to the bottom of the hill. She also suggested placing a traffic light at the bottom of the Ravenna and Auburn Road hills.
“At one time, there was a mirror on Ravenna Road, so the people exiting Auburn could actually see what was coming up the Ravenna Road hill, but that was removed,” she added.
Salkiewicz mentioned the two-way stop on Green Road in Madison Township being recently modified to a four-way stop with larger signs on both sides of the road, and advance warning signs and reflectors on all posts.
McClelland cautioned that what works for some stretches of road will not improve others.
“Intersections that have an unusually high number of accidents need to be studied to determine the best way to make them safer. Installing lighted stop signs or additional ’stop ahead’ signs may be appropriate in one area while another intersection might be better addressed by a full stop light. Still another intersection might benefit from changes in the traffic pattern for vehicles entering or exiting a commercial parking lot,” he said.
McClelland added that overusing some measures, like lighted stop signs or rumble strips, diminish their impact.
“The lighted stop signs are real attention-getters but they would lose their effectiveness if they were used on every intersection. A thorough examination of the accidents and their causes should help find the common denominator, thereby identifying the best option for making a particular intersection safer.”
Bowen said, ultimately, it is still a driver’s responsibility to take care of him or herself.
“As far as having to worry about getting hit by someone, that’s the driver’s responsibility. That’s how I look at it,” he said. “If you’re not paying attention or if you’re not going to pay attention, don’t be on the road.”
JLea@News-Herald.com
CShofar@News-Herald.com
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