Published on Monday, January 23, 2006
in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Charlotte's dirty dozen

CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- The quiet corner of Tamiami Trail and County Road 39 might look like a rural country crossing, but Dan Neal knows it is one of the most dangerous places in Charlotte County.

"I'm pretty cautious," Neal said, pumping gas into his pickup truck. "I'm surprised there's not more deaths."

Tamiami and C.R. 39, the site of at least 31 car accidents, 18 injuries and $151,000 in property damage in 2005, is actually last on a list of 12 intersections that the county has targeted as its most accident-prone.

County engineers and police use the list to identify areas that need wider roads, more signs or more patrol officers.

But county officials say there is only so much they can do about the dangerous dozen, which stretch from Murdock almost to the Lee County line. Charlotte County's growing population means more drivers which inevitably leads to more crashes.

Ask anyone who has driven through Tamiami Trail and Toledo Blade Boulevard in Port Charlotte, the county's worst intersection in 2005 with at least 112 accidents, 45 injuries and $463,000 in property damage.

The county is still compiling statistics for December, but the 12 intersections were the site of 686 of the county's 3,969 accidents through November. State statistics show that Charlotte's accident rate has gone up every year this decade, which has seen the county's population climb by 11 percent.

Blame the population increase, an old road system that needs improvement, older drivers whose eyesight has faded, and younger drivers who are too aggressive, said county traffic superintendent Donald Purcell.

But don't expect the county to be able to solve all the traffic woes.

"We can't change road designs for aggressive driving," Purcell said, "or eyesight, maybe the medications that the elderly are on, stuff like that."

Through November, 7,528 vehicles were involved in accidents in Charlotte County. The crashes resulted in 1,675 injuries, 45 deaths and more than $1.7 million in property damage.

The county's 12 most dangerous intersections accounted for seven of the deaths and 1,319 of the vehicles involved.

That is partly because they are located on some of the highway's busiest thoroughfares, county transportation engineer Wesley Millard said. Six are located on U.S. 41, the county's main commercial street, and five others touch Interstate 75.

Still, the list provides the county with important information for making the roads safer, Millard said. The list can also be used as a bargaining chip when county engineers need funding for a project, he said.

For example, county engineers used the stats to show a problem at Tamiami Trail and Midway Boulevard in Port Charlotte, the second-most accident-prone intersection on the list.

Cars at that intersection are frequently rear-ended in a left-turn area in the middle of Tamiami. The county has a plan to widen the turn area so cars will have more room, Millard said.

Millard speculated that Charlotte's raw crash numbers will keep climbing because of the county's growing population.

But more road improvements like the Midway project can at least lower the county's rate of crashes with injuries, which has consistently dropped over the past few years, Millard said.

Getting money can be tough, though, because the county's road budget is already operating at a deficit of more than $100 million.

"We identify problems and begin to implement solutions," Millard said, "when there is funding."

Charlotte's 3,969 accidents through November may seem like a dramatic increase from 2004, when the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported 2,053 accidents in the county. But Charlotte officials caution that the county's numbers are always higher than the state's, so the final numbers won't be that much of a spike.

Millard said the Hurricane Charley rebuilding effort has contributed to the surge because of the influx of contractors and heavy construction equipment to the county. All the construction vehicles probably added about 100 accidents a month in 2005, he said.

Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Doug Dodson said that's a good reason for drivers to wear a seat belt and stay alert and free from distractions.

A traffic ticket and a stern lecture from a state trooper or sheriff's deputy is often enough to straighten out a dangerous driver, he said.

Dodson had his own scary moment near the county's sixth-most accident-prone intersection on Wednesday. Near the junction of I-75 and Harborview Road in Harbour Heights, a limousine swerved toward Dodson and almost hit his cruiser.

Dodson was unharmed but shaken. It reminded him of a bit of wisdom he likes to share with dangerous drivers: "They are so focused on point A to point B that they forget what's in the middle there."