Cape's traffic hot spots

On Saturday, Mike Kepner joined the ranks of dozens of other drivers involved in accidents where Broadway and Kingshighway meet.

A rented 2007 Mustang failed to negotiate a turn from Kingshighway and slammed into Kepner's 1996 Chrysler Town and Country van. No one was injured, though Kepner is wrangling with the rental company over insurance for the van, which he says is totaled.

Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 18, Cape Girardeau police have documented 33 accidents and five related injuries at Broadway and Kingshighway. Since 2004, 12 people have died in vehicle crashes within Cape Girardeau's city limits, but only one in 2007, the result of a motorcycle accident at College and Ellis streets.

The next most hazardous intersection is at Mount Auburn Road, between Route K and Gordonville Road, with 25 accidents so far this year; 21 fender benders were reported on Route K between Farrar Drive and Mount Auburn Road; 19 on Kingshighway between Independence and Themis streets; and 14 apiece on two sections of Route K -- between Saint Francis Drive and Mount Auburn Road as well as around the northbound exit of Interstate 55.

"Notice a pattern?" said Sgt. Kevin Orr, of Cape Girardeau Police Department's traffic division, pointing to a street map on his office wall, tracing a row of crash sites on Route K, between Kingshighway and I-55.

A single word

One word sums up the main cause of accidents there, and at Broadway and Kingshighway, according to Craig Compas, MoDOT Southeast District traffic engineer: volume. He's not shocked by Cape Girardeau's top accident spot.

An average of 26,500 vehicles move north and south on Kingshighway daily, and 16,200 roll along Broadway. Over the course of the year, he said, 15 million vehicles traverse the Broadway-Kingshighway intersection.

"And we had 33 accidents? That's pretty good," he said. Most of the crashes were rear-end collisions, which are more likely to happen but less injurious once signals are installed at busy crossroads.

Orr and Cape Girardeau's city engineer, Kelly Green, a former MoDOT traffic engineer, agreed. They said the most common causes of accidents are inattention, generally when a driver assumes the vehicle ahead will follow through with a forward motion or turn.

Police often are the first to alert MoDOT or city traffic engineers to recurrent problems. Earlier this year, MoDOT revamped traffic flow at Siemers Drive and Route K. Compas said drivers in the double right-turn lanes on Siemers Drive were sideswiping one another. But after adding a right-turn signal and posting signs banning right turns on red lights, the problem appears to be fixed, and for less than $5,000 -- though it will be months before statistics reflect the changes, he said.

Making similar adjustments in the city's other traffic hot spots doesn't appear to be on the immediate horizon, he said.

"If there was an opportunity, we would do something there," Compas said. "We look at those intersections continually."

Twenty-five of Broadway and Kingshighway's accidents this year were rear-end accidents caused by following too closely, Orr said. The remaining fender benders were attributed to inattention; improper turns or lane changes; moving too fast for conditions; and, for three accidents, failure to yield.

Orr said cell phones are one of the most common causes of inattention.

Orr said that although it's not illegal to drive while talking on a cell phone, eating or drinking, each of those factors can contribute to operator inattention. And that, he said, is ticket-worthy.

A distracted driver is more likely to be in an accident, something police officers experience as an on-the-job hazard.

Orr said he's been in a patrol car rammed by a suspect being pursued by police as well as minor crashes. Officers are driving while watching for traffic violations and looking for people committing crimes, he said.

pmcnichol@semissouran.com

335-6611, extension 127