People driving to work, shop or play face a greater risk of crashing at Phoenix intersections than at crossings anywhere else in the Valley. Preliminary figures obtained by The Arizona Republic and 12 News show that Phoenix was home to 18 of the 20 most crash-prone intersections in 2000. The other two dangerous crossings in the Valley's top 20 are in Tempe and Mesa, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

The news that Rural Road and University Drive in Tempe and Southern Avenue and Country Club Drive in Mesa are among the most dangerous crossings doesn't surprise people who live and work near those intersections. "It happens all the time," said Jessie Thompson, who works at Tune Up Masters at the Tempe crossing. "If I knew a traffic guru who wanted to watch accidents, I'd tell them to camp out here."

Brenda Simmons, manager of a Denny's restaurant near Southern and Country Club, said, "People are in a hurry, and they are not watching the light. They need to be more cautious. It's a bad intersection."

The ADOT figures show 26 intersections in the Valley with at least 40 crashes in 2000. Of those, 22 were in Phoenix, two in Mesa and one each in Tempe and Scottsdale. The crashes tend to be concentrated in intersections besieged with thousands of commuters each day weaving their way to and from work, many of them in west and central Phoenix. "Inattention is a huge, huge problem as so many people are in a hurry," Phoenix police Sgt. Mike Hein said. Most of the collisions occur under clear skies during daylight hours because of driver inattention, analysts say.

A wreck a week was recorded last year at each of the Valley's two most crash-prone intersections: 19th Avenue and Indian School Road and Seventh Street and McDowell Road, both in central Phoenix. Among all surface streets in the Valley, Indian School Road has the most collision-prone intersections in the Valley. Six crossings ranked among the 20 most crash-prone. Many of the dangerous intersections involve six-lane roads that carry about 40,000 cars per day.

Jim Sparks, Phoenix's deputy street transportation director, said that when two six-lane streets converge, about 80,000 people are crossing each other's paths, increasing the likelihood of crashes. "The more traffic, the more collisions," he said. Although every police department collects data on intersection collisions, they don't always classify accidents the same way. For example, the Phoenix Police Department says the intersection at Ray Road and 50th Street in the Ahwatukee Foothills area had 72 crashes last year, making it the most crash-prone in the city. However, ADOT named 19th Avenue and Indian School and Seventh Street and McDowell as having more accidents.

ADOT officials stressed that their statistics are preliminary. City engineering and police departments study collision data, comparing frequency, traffic volume, severity of crashes and contributing factors. Engineers search for problems they can correct with design improvements or other changes, such as more signs, timing adjustments, or left-turn lane arrows. Sparks said his staff designs signals and striping with drivers in mind. "In about 95 percent of the cases, it's the driver's error. It's rare to have an instance where the equipment failed or there's debris in the road," said Matt Burdick, ADOT public information officer. "Someone made an error, whether by running a red light or speeding."

Traffic officers try to reduce the number of collisions by targeting poor driving behavior. "A lot of our enforcement is about education. Just because you are stopped doesn't mean you are going to get a ticket," Hein said. Almost any time safety campaigns are waged, collisions decrease, Sparks said, but the key is not to wear out their welcome, because people forget or get tired of the message.

The cost of accidents is staggering. In Maricopa County alone, collisions meant $1.3 billion in lost wages, medical expenses, motor vehicle damage and employer costs in 1999, ADOT data show. The figures are not broken down to reflect how much of this toll was exacted by crashes at intersections. "Just because you are not involved in an accident does not mean you are not impacted," Hein said. "Collisions increase the cost of insurance and health care. So everybody is affected one way or another."

Reach the reporter at senta.scarborough@arizonarepublic.com or call (480) 444-7937.

Bob Golfen - The Arizona Republic -
May. 17, 2006

If you think Phoenix drivers are the rudest, most impatient and most discourteous in the country, you're wrong.

We're second.

According to a newly released survey of U.S. cities, the nastiest drivers on the highway are found in Miami, followed by Phoenix, New York City, Los Angeles and Boston.

The list was compiled by AutoVantage, a Connecticut auto-travel club, after a survey of 2,040 drivers in 20 major metropolitan areas.

"They don't put on their signals when they switch lanes, they tailgate, they run red lights, they don't pay attention to what they're doing," Charlene Laswell of south Phoenix said as she ticked off her list of driving complaints.

Laswell, 51, said Valley drivers are among the rudest she has encountered, including those back East.

"In Ohio, they're much more patient, and they're more willing to give you the right of way," Laswell said.

Her daughter, Lore McCuin, 24, said she has seen a change for the worse in Phoenix driving behavior in recent years.

"It's a lot tougher here than it used to be, I'll tell you that," she said. "I'm pretty frustrated myself by other people's driving."

The Driver's Seat Road Rage Survey, conducted by Prince Marketing Research for AutoVantage, targets the root causes of road rage, a growing problem on U.S. highways and a major cause of crashes.

"More and more, in cities across America, people are acting out their frustrations, with dangerous results," said AutoVantage spokesman Bobby Hamilton, a NASCAR driving champion. "Road rage has unfortunately too often become a way of life both on and off the track."

The Valley's growing traffic problems, road construction and long commutes have heightened the stress for drivers throughout the Phoenix area, said Rick Knight, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

"I don't feel we're any worse than a lot of cities, but if you look at the ones the survey identified (as worst), they're all large cities that have grown very rapidly and have a lot of new roads," Knight said. "What I see mostly are drivers who show plenty of patience for what's been going on."

The survey's methodology and conclusions were faulted by another DPS spokesman, Harold Sanders, who said the number of survey respondents was too small to give an accurate assessment of driver courtesy. He also said the survey questions and responses were mostly irrelevant.

"This courteous rating doesn't make sense to me," Sanders said. "What they've come up with is ridiculous. No validation, no verifiable information."

Phoenix-area drivers often spend extra time in their vehicles because of long commuting distances in dense traffic, which can add to impatience, said Linda Gorman, spokeswoman for AAA Arizona.

"People tend to be a bit more frustrated because it's such a big, spread-out area," Gorman said. "It can wear on anybody's nerves."

A more-critical problem seen by AAA is the increasing instances of distracted drivers, a likely cause of accidents, she said.

"Distracted drivers talking on their cellphones, playing with their Blackberries, talking with their passengers. That's more of a prevalent problem that we see every day," she said. "We're doing a lot more things in our cars that have nothing to do with driving."