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Crash Data Shows Highway 29’s Worst Intersections
June 28, 2010
Crash data from the Florida Department of Transportation provides some interesting insight into how many crashes occur on Highway 29 and which intersections are the worst.
If you guessed the Highway 97 intersection is bad; you would be right. Crash data shows the Highway 97 and Highway 29 intersection in Molino experienced abnormally high crash rates from 2005-2008 compared to the statewide average for similar intersections.
Data from the most recently available five year period available shows that there were 1,521 crashes, 907 of which caused injury. The most common crash type on Highway 29 from Pensacola to the Alabama state line was rear-end (39 percent).
The most common crash day was Friday (18 percent), and about 30 percent of wrecks happened between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Nine intersections along Highway 29 were identified as high crash locations — having more than eight crashes per year, or 40 over a five year period:
- Highway 97 — 38 crashes
- Ten Mile Road — 61 crashes
- Nine One Half Mile Road — 34 crashes
- Burgess Road — 68 crashes
- Diamond Dairy Road — 58 crashes
- Broad Street — 68 crashes
- Hannah Street — 49 crashes
- Hood Drive — 43 crashes
- Detroit Boulevard — 68 crashes
Statistics revealed more information about the three most northern high crash locations on Highway 29:
- Highway 97 — The most common crash type at the Highway 97 and Highway 29 intersection was rear-end at 63 percent. About two-thirds of all crashes resulted in at least one injury. About 58 percent of the at-fault vehicles were traveling east off Highway 97. During the five year period studied, there was one fatal crash in 2005.
- Ten Mile Road — Common crash types were split between rear-end at 36 percent and angle at 34 percent. Crashes most commonly occurred between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and about one-third of the crashes were at night. About two-thirds of the wrecks at the intersection resulted in an injury.
- Nine One Half Mile Road — About six out of ten wrecks at this intersection were from an angle, while 21 percent were rear-end. About one-third happened after dark. Over 70 percent of the at-fault vehicles were traveling on Nine One Half Mile Road.
Pictured top: Six people were injured in a two-vehicle accident in September, 2008, at the intersection of Highway 29 and Highway 97. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
21 Responses to “Crash Data Shows Highway 29’s Worst Intersections”
Celeste White, I believe her name was.
Her grandfather, Leroy–I think, worked hard to improve the situation. He got them to lower the speed limit to 55 all the way down to Whirlpool Road, put up flashing amber lights on three sides of the intersection, more reflectors on the STOP signs, renew the rumble strips.
It’s too late for her but he tried to help others. Good man.
David for doing what you can do to help others
The Bluff Springs crossroad is a really dangerous intersection. I remember in 2003, on Thanksgiving Day, a young girl died in a car crash at that intersection. A couple of people have commented to me on the way the oncoming traffic heading south looks further away than it is. Then, when you pull out to go onto Byrneville Road, the cars are closer than they appear. My friend said it was an “optical illusion.” Please be careful at that intersection.
I travel from molino to pensacola six days a week on hwy 29 and never had an accident in 15 years.Reason why i watch everyone and keep my mind on driving.If i get a call on my cell phone i either call them back when i stop or they can phone me later.I see idiots trying to text and drive every day.SO STUPID
I am thinking that people you do not know the road, too much speed, not paying attention or ……..even rushing to work after spending a night gambling. Do you think this could have help the crashes on Hwy 97? I know of people who gamble all night then rush to get to work on time. No sleep, speed, and just plain not paying attention to their driving. People who like to gamble who do not know the road, rushing to get home or wherever.
I have been on Hwy 97 driving to the doctor’s office, another car is on my tail when I am already doing 60 in a 55 on a winding, but not too narrower as the road used to be some 15-20 years ago.
What do you think? Too much SPEED? Too much GAMBLING? OR just NOT paying attention?
I can’t count the times on two hands I’ve almost been in an accident at the intersection of 29 and 97. One problem I find is no one knows how to use blinker my understanding is there on every car and real easy to use at least mine is another people are in way to much of a hurry coming at 65/70 mph to turn on 97 please slow down and use that blinker and for you people leaving the tom thumb to turn on 97 please please stay in your lane so I can turn there to and there is a big red sigb there that says stop not pull out half way on 97 then decide to look and for the people speeding from 29 onto 97 slowdown in case I have my blinker on to turn onto crabtree ch rd instead of having to whip around me and almost hitting the peanut man!!! Then again like it was said before you CAN’T FIX STUPID
REGARDING:
“Bluff Springs isn’t that bad, aside from the crazy people who go 90+ down Hwy. 29″
Considering how many others have way more crashes, it seems it isn’t all that bad at all other than the fact that a high speed crash is far more likely to be fatal than a low speed crash. I can fault people for speeding but most crashes in Bluff Springs come from locals who pull out in front of speeding vehicles.
It’s a wonder I’m not the only one left. Actually it’s a wonder even I am left because of neighbors who’ve pulled out in front of me. (Not that I don’t love them every one, it’s just that I miss them after they’re gone and the ones they take with them.)
I’ve been at crashes at Barrineau Park and US 29 and heard drivers say, “Well, I was just crossing 29 and everybody knows I do it this time every day.”
It was the fault of the outsiders for not knowing they intended to run the stop sign.
Years back, a lady ran into the back of a car in Flomaton.
She jumped out to tell the other man she was sorry.
“Don’t worry about it Mrs. Brown, it’s my fault.” [name made up or forgotten]
“How could it be your fault? You were parked.”
“Yes Ma’am, I was but I knew you come to town on Saturdays and I came anyway.”
AND
“. . . most of these happen, being rear-ended…YOU CAN NOT CURE STUPID!”
We understand that. This is likely why anydaynow wants to do away with having to stop. Anydaynow figures since people aren’t going to stop, it’s our fault for putting up stop signs and traffic lights.
I’ve been rear-ended by a lady who didn’t understand why I was stopped in the first place. After all the light had only been red for ten seconds or so. She had to hang up on the one with whom she was talking when she rammed me and call Highway Patrol.
And, of course, you CAN cure stupid but only with time and/or death. Somehow I’ve lived this long and don’t drive quite as stupidly as I did in my earlier youth–but I didn‘t think I was driving stupidly back then either.
I’ve lost a lot of unreasonable faith in my fellow drivers. I’ve seen a lot of people dead from carelessness–theirs or that of others, often both.
duh!!!!!
Most of you id not read the artical correctly, they are saying the stop sign is were most of these happen, being rear-ended…YOU CAN NOT CURE STUPID!
stupid, I have done myself!…All of us are in to big of a hurry because we don’t stop and think…
Good day folks!
Bluff Springs isn’t that bad, aside from the crazy people who go 90+ down Hwy. 29
from the Slate article:
snip
The two are fundamentally different beasts. You are in a modern roundabout if it is the entering driver who must yield to traffic already circling. You are not in a modern roundabout if you are expected to yield to entering drivers or if you encounter traffic lights or stop signs. Size is another easy distinguishing mark. The old traffic circles were huge, and actually required drivers to make fairly significant detours around a vast central area—typically just an expanse of desultorily tended grass. Roundabouts are typically half the size; some, like one in Kingston, N.Y., were built inside the infields of existing traffic circles. Rather than simple lawns, their centers may contain statues, beds of flowers, or any number of visual elements. Velocity is another telltale identification mark. The older traffic circles are often marked by high “entry speeds”—drivers come blazing in on long arcing curves and must then merge, highway-style. In the tighter spaces of the modern roundabout, the entrances and exits are “flared” with “splitter islands” that “deflect” incoming traffic.
snip
REGARDING:
“I would like to see a lot of intersections in the area converted to roundabouts, they are much safer than intersections, allow traffic to continue to flow as opposed to coming to a full stop. ”
I wonder how much land a 70 mile per hour roundabout takes. I come up with a radius of 3,276 feet to make the turn at a tenth of the acceleration of gravity.
35 miles per hour could do it at just 819 feet radius, so we either have to slow down even more or run the roundabout at higher G’s and risk our benefits by being flung off the track. This may be practical in some places but open roads and many intersections make it unlikely to catch on.
We could also make the roads much safer by dropping the speed limit to 35 but methinks that ain’t gonna happen either.
Safest thing we could do would be to automate cars so they don’t make our mistakes. Better reaction times, more observant, able to communicate back and forth with each other so they fit in the spaces more safely.
Until they break down, of course. Maybe even then, all things considered.
David wondering how most fatalaties per intersection comes out
rather than just crashes per intersection
REGARDING:
“. . . been in the merge lane and had have people pull out from the gas station in front of me like they have the right of way.. . . ”
And then there’s the folks who stop at the beginning of a merge lane to wait for traffic to clear up as they back up the traffic behind them. (I’m not thinking you are doing it in your situtation, it just reminded me of how often I see it.)
never a dull day driving
“Mommy, why’s Daddy smilling whenever he walks through the door every day?”
“Because he made it home alive again, Honey.”
Why in the world isn’t Barrineau Park Road (Hwy 196) and Hwy. 29 listed? I thought it was pretty notorious, for the deaths that have occured there.
I would like to see a lot of intersections in the area converted to roundabouts, they are much safer than intersections, allow traffic to continue to flow as opposed to coming to a full stop. They also save gas because no one is ever at idle when navigating a roundabout.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446639/
http://www.slate.com/id/2223035
Most accidents occur on Friday between 2-6pm. No wonder it’s the weekend everyone wants to get home, they are in a hurry with things on their minds and not paying attension like they should..
More speed bumps and traffic lights are not going to make things better. It’s the drivers themselves that are the problem. Human error.
I’ve come off 97 / 29 and been in the merge lane and had have people pull out from the gas station in front of me like they have the right of way. Where am I suppose to go by being forced into moving traffic. I won’t move they can hit me.
I’m already on the road you are pulling out of a drive way, you will get the ticket not me!!
Bluff Springs Crossroads didn’t make the list.
I guess we are safer than I thought
WRM———–>I agree with your comment……….I bet it would cut those crashes in half and I’m with you on ” driving being a full time job ” .
The only traffic signal I know of is where 97 meets 29 at Molino .
b/c we have people that like to “speed” and text…talk on the phone…..wish that wasn’t the course here on this highway but it is! slow down…pay more attention and we won’t be seeing these number’s go up….
29 and 10 mile could be fixed relatively easily if there was a will to do so.
Add a red ‘no left turn arrow’ to the signal for traffic turing East from the southbound lane (there is not sufficient viability for ‘left on green’ turns).
Also add a merge lane on the north bound shoulder coming from 10 mile east bound lane.
OBTW, you will know me, I am the guy you are honking at because I will not turn left on the green southbound… seen too many accidents there.
If you travel north on Hwy.29 you always have to be ready for some idiot to pull out in front of you turning north from 10 Mile Rd.
If you really think about it, I know of no “silly” traffic lights anywhere–so these intersections really should have at the least some timed devices which go into full effect at certain times and serve as caution lights in off peak hours.
A few moments and planning your route and schedule goes a long way toward safety. Paying close attention to the notion of driving being a — full time job— also add credence.
None of us can afford to take our eyes off of the road for one second.