Okeechobee-Military county’s most crash-prone intersection
WEST PALM BEACH — The intersection of Okeechobee Boulevard and North Military Trail has long been a magnet for vehicle crashes, and 2017 was no different.
Okeechobee and Military was the scene of 183 crashes last year — the most in Palm Beach County and about one every other day, according to statistics provided by the county Engineering and Public Works Department.
No other intersection from Boca Raton to Jupiter came close.
“Military and Okeechobee has been bad since I was a kid,” Rita Hendricks Salazar, 40, of West Palm Beach said on a Palm Beach Post Facebook post. “It was only four lanes back then, and it was still dangerous.”
Going back to at least 2007, the suburban West Palm Beach intersection has annually ranked either first or second in crashes in the county.
Today, the intersection has exploded to a total of nearly 30 through and turn lanes, with more than 100,000 vehi-
cles passing through every day.
Traffic officials say many of the crashes that occur at Okeechobee and Military are avoidable, ranging from fender benders resulting from vehicles veering into a turn lane, or rear-enders at red lights.
In 2014, the Okeechobee and Military intersection a lso led the county in crashes.
“There’s no dangerous intersections, just STUPID CARELESS people,” Reynold Gayahpersad posted on a Facebook page devoted to The Post’s coverage of Wellington.
The majority of crashes may be minor, but some seri- ous and even fatal wrecks often happen at the inter- section.
On Jan. 27, a 26-year-old man was killed after he made an illegal left turn in his Toyota from the north- bound lane of Military onto Okeechobee, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.
It marked at least the third year in a row that a driver has been killed at the chaotic intersection.
“Military and Okeechobee,” answered Roberta Tolnai to a Face- book question regarding the most dangerous intersection in the West Palm Beach area. “Seen tons of accidents and been in one.”
While Okeechobee Boulevard is particularly crashprone at Military Trail, it’s not the only place on the roadway where a motorist can find trouble.
Travel one-half mile west on Okeechobee to Haverhill Road, and you come to the county’s second-most crash-filled inter- section. In 2017, there were 118 wrecks at Okeechobee and Haverhill, according to the county.
Head about 2 miles in the opposite direction on Okeechobee, to where it intersects with Interstate 95’s southbound exit ramp, and you find another metal-crunching hot spot. The intersection registered 91 crashes in 2017, ranking No. 9 in the county.
Okeechobee’s intersections with I-95, Military and Haverhill are part of a 5-mile stretch considered one of the state’s most dangerous roadways, according to a study using National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics.
The 5-mile span had a fatality rate of five per mile from 2013 through 2015, ranking No. 11 in Florida. A 3.85-mile stretch of I-95’s express lane in Miami-Dade County was No. 1, with a fatality rate of 7.01 per mile.
Staying clear of Military is another good way to avoid a crash. The north-south road is mentioned six times — from Palm Beach Gardens to Delray Beach — in a list of the county’s 20 intersections with the most crashes in 2017.
A few other points of interest in the county’s crash data:
■ Of the 20 intersections with the most crashes, 18 are west of I-95.
■ PGA Boulevard and Military in Palm Beach Gardens, with 85 crashes, was the only intersection among the top 20 in the northern part of the county.
“I have had one accident in the last 40 years of driving, and it was right there,” Robert L. West said on The Post’s Palm Beach Gardens Facebook page.
■ Kirk Road and Forest Hill Boulevard in Palm Springs ranked 19th with 79 crashes in 2017, but its crash rate of 3.89 wrecks per 1 million vehicles was second only to Okeechobee and Military (4.72).