North Carolina is keeping track of the state's most dangerous roads and intersections by entering crash data into a database that is available to the public through the North Carolina Department of Transportation's (NCDOT) website.
Accidents can occur for any number of reasons, including high speeds, alcohol, fatigue, and distracted driving. Poor road design or inadequate signage can also be elements. When an auto accident does occur in North Carolina, all of these reasons and elements are entered into the state's database.
According to data collected over a two-year period by the NCDOT, the most dangerous place for accidents in Durham is at Interstate 40 and Fayetteville Road, which has recorded 138 car accidents.
Skibo Road at the All American Freeway in Fayetteville had 144 accidents over this period. The most dangerous location in the state, however, appears to be in Raleigh at the I-440 and Wake Forest Road intersection, where there were 299 car crashes.
The high volume of traffic at certain intersections increases the chances of an accident as motorists become impatient or take chances with traffic lights and lane changes.
When a crash occurs, the data from the crash is entered into the database, which ranks intersections from the least to the most hazardous on a county-by-county basis. It also lists the cause. For example, Poole Road and New Hope Road in Wake County has a high number of left-hand-turn accidents, making it the 11th-most-hazardous intersection in the state.
The data can show officials where to improve intersection safety by installing blinking yellow lights that warn motorists to slow down because there is a dangerous curve ahead. The most efficient way is to have a highway engineer personally investigate the roadway, but budget cuts have trimmed the number NCDOT employees, including those whose expertise could save lives.
Fortunately, other departments are trying to pick up the slack while cities are using their own funds to remedy dangerous highways and poorly designed roadways. With the lack of revenue, however, more improvements may not be so forthcoming. In the meantime, motorists at least have a resource to check if they are concerned about safety at certain intersections in any area of the state.
