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AMBER TWP. — The most dangerous intersections in Mason County have gotten a lot safer, starting today. Work was completed Thursday night on the new traffic signal at the U.S. 10-31 and Brye Road intersection. Work on a new signal at U.S. 10 and Meyers Road looks like it will be completed today.
The new signals feature left turn phases from U.S. 10 onto the side roads, an effort to reduce the multiple head-on crashes that occur in those locations, especially the Brye Road intersection, which is listed as one of the most dangerous intersections in the state.
“On behalf of the sheriff’s office, I am grateful to Michigan Dept. of Transportation for its commitment to making U.S. 10 a safe highway,” Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole said. ” We welcome MDOT’s support as it joins us in efforts to reduce injuries and fatalities along one of Michigan’s most dangerous highways.
“I think this is great news. Our major injury crashes on U.S. 10 occur as a result of head-on left turn accidents. What we often get is a driver who finds him- or herself under the light as it turns red. They don’t know what to do so they panic and make the left turn. In the meantime, another car is coming east or west and is accelerating to beat the red the light. We hope this will prevent many of those crashes.”
In a traffic safety meeting last year, MDOT traffic and safety engineer Dan Lund said all the traffic lights along U.S. 10 were scheduled for upgrading, allowing for the lights to be better timed with a radio system that reviews current traffic patterns.
In 2013, MDOT released a transparency report listing the intersections at Brye and U.S. 10 and PM and U.S. 10 as being in the top 5 percent of the most dangerous intersections in the state, based on the number of injury crashes. The Pere Marquette intersection received the left turn phasing last year.
– Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.
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