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New study unveils worst intersections in Valley
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DANGER ZONE: Joey Dixon of Austintown stands alongside his brother’s Suzuki motorcycle at one of the most-dangerous intersections in Mahoning County — Mahoning Avenue and state Route 46 in Austintown. Dixon’s own motorcycle was totaled when he was in an accident at the intersection this past summer. He escaped without serious injury.
The report is based on crash data from 2005 to 2007.
By CHRISTINE KEELING and MINDY GRAY
Special to The Vindicator
Joseph Dixon knows what it’s like to drive through the most crash-plagued intersection in Mahoning County.
Dixon, 23, of Austintown was enjoying a ride last summer on his Yamaha motorcycle on state Route 46. As he crossed through the Mahoning Avenue intersection, a Mercury Tracer coming toward him failed to yield as it turned west onto Mahoning.
Dixon said he had no time to react, and his body became a projectile. He struck the front right side of the Tracer. His body flew onto the hood and windshield, slid across the pavement and came to rest with a good dose of road rash.
His new bike was totaled, but a helmet and leather jacket kept his injuries from being worse.
“The responding officer told me it was a dangerous intersection,” Dixon said, “Now I always look twice before I cross.”
The Valley’s most crash-prone intersections are highlighted in the 2009 Regional Safety Plan released in September by Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. The report is based on crash data from 2005 to 2007 and ranks area intersections by the number and severity of accidents and the average daily number of cars passing through them.
Mahoning Avenue and state Route 46 in Austintown have five lanes of converging traffic which is used by 48,246 vehicles daily. The intersection had 143 accidents and 46 injuries between 2005 and 2007 and was ranked the county’s second-most dangerous intersection.
Rated the most-dangerous intersection is Raccoon Road and U.S. Route 224 in Canfield Township. While it had fewer accidents, injuries and traffic, it had one fatality to propel it to the most-dangerous title.
In 2007, an 86-year-old man from Youngstown was killed there when the westbound car he was in collided with the rear of a car at a traffic signal on westbound Route 224. The collision pushed the line of cars forward and two additional vehicles were damaged.
In addition to the fatal accident, 43 people were injured in 106 crashes at that intersection between 2005 and 2007.
In Warren, the intersection of North Road and East Market Street ranks as the most dangerous in Trumbull County with 103 accidents and 38 injuries from 2005 to 2007.
East Market Street has six lanes to the west of the intersection and five lanes to the east, which converge with three lanes of traffic on North Road. There are 12 entrances to area businesses in close proximity to the intersection, and an average of 40,926 vehicles pass through daily.
Theresa Hinkle, a cashier at the Speedway on the corner, believes the danger is caused by cars navigating in and out business driveways near the intersection. For more than a year, Hinkle has had to turn south onto North Road and pull into the True North gas station across the street just so she can head north toward home.
“Coming out of a driveway across traffic is almost impossible,” said Hinkle, “People really fly through here all day long.”
Ed Davis, Eastgate project manager, said some high-accident intersections can be improved by addressing traffic signals, faded lines and overall congestion. Davis said further studies by each community’s road department can help identify the problems and solutions for each location.
Davis said one intersection on the list — Raccoon Road-Burgett Road at the Canfield and Austintown townships border — already has been addressed, though the repairs were made too late to have much of an impact on the intersection’s rating in this study.
In 2007, that intersection was coated with a special nonslip paving material and received a portable warning sign. As a result, the accident rate went from 20 in 2006 to one in 2007.
“There were lots of accidents at Raccoon Road and Burgett [Road], where there’s a curve there,” said Davis. “[After] they repaved that section, there was hardly any accidents the year after that.”
Robert Donham, traffic engineer for the Mahoning County Engineer’s office, said signal upgrades and new lane identification lines can be helpful in reducing accidents.
Donham said his office plans to change outdated traffic signals countywide with new 12-inch LED signals starting in spring 2010. He said the county already has secured federal funds to install larger signals and new lane lines at the Mahoning Avenue and Four Mile Road intersection in Austintown. That project will begin late 2010.
“Notoriously, streets that run east and west have poor visibility at dusk and dawn because of the sun,” Donham said. “Larger and brighter signals can help that.”
Justin Chesnic, spokesman for District 4 of the Ohio Department of Transportation, said state officials use safety reports to understand why accidents occur and how intersection can be repaired.
ODOT and Eastgate are now studying U.S. Route 224 from Interstate 680 to state Route 11, which includes the Raccoon Road intersection. The study will help determine how to reduce congestion and the number of accidents.
While there are no plans at this time to address the Mahoning Avenue and state Route 46 intersection, officials said area motorists can do several things to help create safer intersections.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recommends driving defensively. Drivers should recognize situations that can be hazardous, assume other drivers will make errors, and adjust their speed to accommodate the situation.
XFor a full copy of the 2009 Regional Safety Plan, contact the Youngstown-based Eastgate Regional Council of Governments at www.eastgatecog.org or at (330) 779-3800.