The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
The most dangerous road? It’s not even close
NEW HAVEN —It may come as no surprise that Interstate 91 was the top spot in New Haven for automobile accidents over the past three years with 1,493 crashes — or that Interstate 95 was right up there with 1,057.
But some of the other local accident statistics provided by the University of Connecticut’s Connecticut Crash Data Repository may
be less anticipated.
Even with 1,057 accidents over the past three years, I-95 still came in third.
Route 10, a state highway that includes Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and stretches of Crescent and Fitch streets before hitting Arch Street and Morse Avenue in Hamden and hanging a left to jog north on Dixwell, is the most dangerous local road in New Haven when it comes to sheer numbers of auto crashes, the data shows.
It saw 1,396 crashes from Jan. 1, 2018, to July 31, 2021, second only to I-91, according to the UConn database.
That’s 339 more wrecks than I-95 and 504 more than took place on the Wilbur Cross Parkway, Route 15, which had the fourthhighest number of crashes during the same period.
Other hot spots in New Haven included Route 1, which also is several different streets as it passes through New Haven (Columbus Avenue, part of Union Avenue, Water Street and Forbes Avenue), with 725; Chapel Street with 651; Route 80 with 577; Whalley Avenue with 566; and Route 63 with 564.
Rounding out the New Haven Top 10 is “unknown” with 479.
Other roads with significant numbers of crashes include Grand Avenue / East Grand Avenue with 444, Dixwell Avenue with 419, State Street with 277, Edgewood Avenue with 250, Whitney Avenue with 242, Orange Street with 227 and Howard Avenue with 203.
“It doesn’t at all,” said Boyd.
“The car accidents are just people not obeying the law — speeding, just going around people,” he said.
Some of the crashes “actually are being created by people running the (traffic) lights ... and a lot of pedestrians get hit by that,” Boyd said.
“We’ve been working with the DOT on some adjustments, as far as pedestrians. There’s a lot of pedestrians” struck on that stretch of road, he said. “We have a lot of the people (experiencing homelessness) back in West River, (camping) back in the woods; people coming from the Columbus House,” a homeless shelter on the boulevard, people “on bikes.”
“We’re looking to make some adjustments on traffic lights, maybe make some better sidewalks,” Boyd said.
Torquati said that based on his experience it was “not at all” a surprise that Route 10, a state road, has the highest incidence of crashes of any non-limited-access highway within city.
The relatively high amount of pedestrian traffic on a road that also is home to the busy
Boulevard Flea Market on weekends is “definitely a factor. Folks typically don’t use the crosswalks.
“There are just so many different things that are factors — how many unauthorized vehicles are you seeing there? Dirt bikes, minibikes” and ATVs, he said.
In order to make changes, however, “because it’s a state road, they have to rely on the state when we go out there,” Torquati said. “Have to rely on the state to use their planning.”
And because Ella T. Grasso Boulevard is so busy a road, “I don’t think you’re going to to be able to install speed bumps there,” he said. “Because of how many large vehicles travel down there,” options are limited, he said. “I don’t think speed bumps could take the beating down there.”’
There are “plenty of lights there, which you’d think would prevent a lot of accidents,” but “I just think the variables tend to be pedestrians and just the volume” of traffic, Torquati said.
Beyond that, “I wouldn’t be surprised if cellphone use doesn’t play a part,” as well as concerts, sporting events and occasional drag racing, he said.
Farther north on Route 10 in Hamden, which begins on Fitch Street, Arch Street and Morse Street near Southern Connecticut State University, hooks left onto Dixwell Avenue and then turns left again in the center of town onto Whitney Avenue from Dixwell to the Cheshire line, there were another 1,977 crashes during the same period.
That’s the greatest number of any road in Hamden — albeit on the longest marked route in town, stretching all the way from New Haven to Cheshire. It’s more than double the 917 crashes on the Hamden stretch of the Wilbur Cross Parkway, Route 15.
Route 10 in Cheshire had 596 crashes. In other neighboring communities, I-95 had the most crashes in West Haven with 622, followed by Campbell Avenue with 602, Route 162 with 579 and Route 1 with 570.
In East Haven, Route 100 had 328 crashes, followed by Route 1 with 258, Route 80 with 199, Route 142 with 193 and Main Street with 189.
Branford had 758 crashes on Route 1, 554 on I-95 and 145 on Route 146 during the same period.
North Haven had 925 on Route 15, 796 on I-91 and 530 on Route 5, while North Branford had 276 on Route 80 and 228 on Route 22.
Milford had 1,131 crashes on I-95, 727 on Route 1 and 308 on Route 15, while Orange had 1,013 on the Wilbur Cross Parkway, 664 on Route 1 and 541 on Route 34.
Woodbridge had 212 wrecks on Route 15, 165 on Route 69 and 161 on Route 63. Bethany had 135 on Route 69 and 90 on Route 63.