Most Dangerous Intersections In Central Mass
Monday, March 19, 2012
Central Mass’ Worst
One example of these crash ridden intersections is at Belmont Street and Oak Avenue in Worcester. This intersection ranked 17th in the state and 91 crashes has occurred. More than 25% of the crashes have resulted in injuries – 26 in total. “It's crazy, I can’t even get home,” said Worcester resident Bridgette Franklin from her car at the intersection. “I try to avoid this.”
Chief Gary Gemme of the Worcester Police Department said the city has made efforts to improve the problem areas. “WPD is well aware of the locations where there is a high frequency of motor vehicle accidents,” he said in an emailed statement. “The department prioritizes limited traffic resources to locations having a high frequency of motor vehicles accidents as well as the type of violations that contribute to motor vehicle collisions.”
The most crashes at any Worcester intersection occurred at Highland Street and Main Street.
The Lincoln Square intersection (Highland and Main Streets) ranks 20th in the Commonwealth with 100 accidents and 22 injuries resulting.
The impact of an accident is significant as the average cost of an auto accident is $1,522 per person.
Amazingly, according to national data complied by AAA when an injury occurs in an accident the average cost of an auto injury is more than $126,000. The cost of a fatality relating to an auto accident raises the cost of the incident to over $6 million on average, according to the same AAA report produced in partnership with Cambridge Systematics, Inc.
Gemme noted that the number of traffic fatalities has decreased dramatically since 2004. In that year the city experienced 18 motor vehicle related fatalities. Since, the number of fatalities have decreased to 6 in all of 2011. In all of the listed intersections, there was only one fatal accident – it occurred at the intersection of Melrose Street and Lincoln Street.
“The reduction in the number of motor vehicle fatalities since 2004 is the result of a strategic effort to improve traffic safety in our community,” said Gemme. “The traffic officers are committed to improving motor vehicle and pedestrian safety.”
Within the first 10 weeks of 2012, the department has issued 171 citations for school zone violations and 497 citations for crosswalk violations. “Traffic safety is a community responsibility that starts with operator and pedestrian awareness, traffic engineering, and traffic enforcement," Chief Gemme said.
Improvements Coming
A project is being planned to improve 18 intersections along Worcester’s Lincoln, Highland and Pleasant Street corridor. The project is set to begin in the spring of 2013, according to MassDOT. Of Worcester’s 21 worse intersections 8 are scheduled for improvement.
The estimated $3.7 million project is designed to reduce congestion along the corridor. This may include minor widening, signal equipment upgrades and detection, lane use modifications and signal phasing.
Other Central Mass Problem Areas
Elsewhere around Central Massachusetts, Marlborough’s intersection at East Main Street and Curtis Avenue ranked 43rd on the list. 101 crashes occurred at the intersection. 15 of those crashes resulted in injuries.
The Worcester Providence Turnpike and and Boston Road intersection in Sutton ranked 53rd on the list. 67 crashes occurred at the site, 21 of those resulting in injuries.
Improvements will add additional lanes heading both north and south bound and will restrict left hand turns from 146 north onto Boston Road.
Plans are in place to improve the 57th ranked intersection at Hartford Avenue (Route 126) and North Main Street in Bellingham. The proposed $2.2 million project will bring improvements to the intersection to address its safety. The project is set to begin in the winter of 2015/ 2016 and will include the intersection at Mechanic Street and Mendon Street (Route 140) as well.
Other Central Mass. towns that have intersections among the top 200 most dangerous in the state include Leominster, Charlton, Oxford, Westborough, and Southborough.
The list used crash data that was collected by the RMV Crash Records Section. The source of the data for this study was provided to the RMV by State and local police reports as well as motorists that were involved in crashes.
The rankings include the total number of crashes at each intersection from 2007 through 2009. It also shows each intersection’s equivalent property damage only crashes, fatal crashes, injury crashes and property damage only and non-reported crashes throughout that per
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