If No One At City Hall Is Paying Attention, They Aren't So Much Accidents As They Are Inevitabilities

At about 11:00 this morning, there was another 2-car accident at the intersection of 4th and Columbia.  Have you already guessed that someone ran a red light?  Well, you wouldn't be too far off. 

Last year or in late 2021, at the behest of Maija Reed and one or two council members of the 4th ward, a NO TURN ON RED sign was finally installed for drivers headed north on 4th Street hoping to turn right on to Columbia and not wanting to wait for the green light.  Accidents were common there, and I believe Maija Reed was involved in one.  There has always been very limited sight distance of oncoming Columbia Street traffic headed east for drivers on 4th at the red light.  Well, that new sign appears not to have done its job this morning.

A bystander at the aftermath who claimed to have witnessed the accident told me that the white car, sign be damned, decided to turn right on red off of 4th.  (There is no way to not notice the NO RIGHT ON RED sign when looking at the traffic light.)

The sign ignorer's car, once it was turning on to Columbia, was immediately plowed into by a black car travelling east on Columbia, which wound up partially inside Club Helsinki's garage and mostly on the sidewalk.  Obviously, a pedestrian or three could easily have been run over.  It did not appear to me that any serious injuries or deaths occurred.

You could say that the driver of the white car ran a red light, but they also ignored a sign telling them not to do so.  They ran the light and they ran the sign, I suppose.

There are two things about this accident that are worth noting.  First, there is no paint anywhere in the intersection.  It appears that there never has been, either.  NO STOP LINES for all 3 directions of traffic along our truck route at the bottom of a long hill where accidents are common.  If you expect drivers to stop at the intersection, showing them (reminding them!) where to do so is important.  DPW can't say that stop lines aren't important, especially if there are several intersections in town with them. 

The driver of the white car saw no STOP LINE to stop at because one does not exist, as is true at so many other busy intersections in town, including along the truck route (Warren Street is full of stop lines, though!).  There are NO CROSSWALKS at this intersection, nor at any others along the truck route, except for Warren Street.  As you may recall from an earlier article, I recently asked Robert DPW Perry why there were no stop lines or crosswalks at the intersection of 6th and Columbia, also along the truck route and at the Farmers Market corner.  His justification?  "We don't have unlimited funds.  Some things are important, and some things are not," he responded.  It's all bullshit, and just makes our streets more dangerous than they need to be because one department head decides that the effort and money are not worth it.

Second, it was like pulling teeth with tweezers to get the city to install a NO TURN ON RED recently at 4th and State, showcasing the dysfunction that thrives at City Hall (if you haven't yet read Hudseen's most widely read article, from February 16th, titled You Can't Make This Stuff Up, I suggest that you do).  Like that sign, the one at 4th and Columbia should have been installed long ago and no one should have had to tell the city to do it.  Instead, someone (Rob Perry, Ed Moore, Shane Bower?) was finally convinced that a NO TURN ON RED sign was needed at 4th and Columbia, then 6 months later they need convincing to do the same thing one block away at State.  No one at DPW or HPD is actively figuring out where signs need installing, they are just reacting (and slowly) to residents' and alders' concerns.  It is as if no one at City Hall is actually paying attention to prevent accidents before they happen.  It is as if they would prefer there to be accidents:  "Look how busy we are!  Look how difficult my job is!  Look what we have to replace because of a crazy driver!"

Of course, as I have said so many times before, our mystery man, no-show, so-called Police Commissioner, Shane Bower, is the only city official with the authority to order traffic signs to be installed.  He doesn't bother showing up to Council meetings and, as far as I know, he doesn't even have an office at HPD.  Nor does he appear to have any expertise in traffic safety.  If he does, he certainly isn't utilizing that knowledge.  Does Shane Bower care that there are no STOP LINES or CROSSWALKS at 4th and State, and that there was another accident there today?  Good luck getting an answer out of him.