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February
8, 2008
Keene roundabout crashes pile up
Roundabout hailed as safer posts 46 crashes
KEENE -
The new traffic roundabout in Keene replaced a dangerous
intersection and was supposed to make things safer. Five
months and 46 traffic crashes later, some drivers are
not so sure.
Tuesday afternoon, a three-car crash involving a
tractor-trailer on the Route 101-Winchester Street
roundabout sent two people to the hospital. It was the
worst accident there since the roundabout opened in
July.
And since September, nine of the 46 crashes at the busy
roundabout involved injuries, according to Keene police
Lt. Richard Richards.
When stop lights regulated traffic at the intersection,
there were 11 crashes, two involving injuries, from
Sept. 1, 2006 to Jan. 30, 2007, according to Richards.
Some Keene residents, like Samm Russell, try to steer
clear.
"When there was a light, I used to go through that
intersection four times a week," Russell said Thursday.
"I don't do that now. I avoid it."
Keene Public Works Director Kurt Blomquist said
roundabouts tend to be safer than traditional
intersections because the circular flow of traffic
forces drivers to slow down.
"Roundabouts statistically have lower levels of severe
accidents," he said. "That's not necessarily less
accidents, just less severe accidents. You don't have
T-bones. You don't have people rushing to beat the
light."
But the percentages of accidents with injuries at the
intersection before and after the Route 101 roundabout
were almost identical during the five-month periods a
year apart.
There were also more than five times as many crashes.
Blomquist believes speed is to blame.
The speed limit drops from 40 mph to 20 mph as vehicles
in two lanes approach the Route 101 roundabout from the
east or west.
Driver Cary Sevene of Spofford said people simply are
not yielding to traffic that has the right of way.
"I think that roundabout at Route 101 is the most
dangerous roundabout in Keene," said Sevene, who drives
through the intersection everyday on her way to work.
"People just don't yield when they should. I've seen
people almost get hit through there."
The relatively new two-lane roundabout also perplexes
some drivers, Blomquist said.
"You're going to have people who have difficulty
adjusting to pattern changes," he said. "I'm still
amazed. I keep hearing about people going the wrong way
on the roundabout. It's just hard for me to imagine how
even the most inattentive driver can make that mistake."
Drivers in other towns haven't seemed to have problems
adjusting to their circular traffic patterns.
There hasn't been a single accident at a roundabout that
opened in Meredith last May, said Police Chief Kevin
Morrow.
"No accidents. Not one," he said. "I'm surprised (about
Keene). Then again, the volume of traffic here is much
less. We have a busy motorcycle week, but there were no
issues other than people swearing at each other."
In Goffstown, there have been three crashes with one
injury involving a bicyclist since the town's heavily
traveled roundabout was finished a year ago, Police
Chief Michael French said.
"This is the major road from the center of Goffstown to
the city of Manchester and Route 293," French said. "It
sees a lot of traffic."
Two roundabouts were built in Hanover in 2006 on Route
10, with no accidents.
"No accidents reported at all," Police Chief Nicholas
Giaccone said. "It's almost like people coming to a
four-way or three-way stop sign. They know that the
people inside the circle have the right-of-way. They
know if someone is coming from the left, whether it's in
the circle or on the adjacent street, they know to
yield."
Not true in Keene, Russell said. She calls the inner
circle of the Route 101 roundabout the "clown lane."
"If people would just slow down when they go into (the
roundabout) and yield, it would be safer," she said.
"Maybe the city should teach a course on roundabouts."
Reproduced by the Goffstown
Residents Association.
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