Every time Scott Prince exits his home on 116th Street near Hoover Road he’s afraid he’s going to see a horrible traffic accident.
Just before Christmas, he said he saw ambulances on his street as a car accident lead to injuries. This isn’t the first time and it’s starting to worry him.
“Every time I thought I might find potential deaths of people and that’s disturbing,” he said. “That’s problematic – right in front of your house. So I’ve seen the evidence that there’s a problem.”
He’s talked to his city councilor, Carol Schleif, and they both agree that the problem is the 40-mph speed limit combined with hills that limit visibility. The dips in the road make it hard to see low vehicles and drivers are going too fast to brake in time.
“Is someone going to have to die or sue the city for millions based on negligence of non-action for what is now a recurring / obvious major problem?” Prince wrote in an e-mail to the city. “I could care less about the proper procedures of street studies and the time that will take.”
It’s difficult to determine if “more” accidents occur in this area than other parts of town. There were three accidents with injury in the area in 2014. If you look back at the accidents in that area since 2012, most were due to “following too close” and the accidents occurred in the daylight with dry conditions. That leads some, such as Schleif, to determine the speed and visibility could be to blame.
Ron Carter, city councilor at-large, said he thinks it’s worth looking into the matter. He can’t make a determination about what needs to be done until he hears back from the city’s engineering department, but he remembers driving past the recent accident that Prince mentioned.
Schleif said she thinks creating a roundabout at 116th and Hoover could be the best solution to slow traffic. She knows that can be costly, but she said it’s important to prevent serious accidents.
“Our city engineer is new, so he is not familiar with the problems here,” she said. “The council just changed the speed limit in the last year to make the southwest area uniform, so I doubt they would change it again. However, to solve the problem, there needs to be another traffic calming device at this location. This is a difficult intersection, and it needs to be addressed. I hope to hear back from engineering shortly with some solutions.”
Prince suggested lowering the speed limit.
“More people could get hurt and this seems like a relatively easy fix,” he said. “You could add a warning sign or just lower the speed limit.”
Schleif said it’s a dangerous area, but lowering the speed wouldn’t help much since, “people are used to driving a certain speed in that area.”
For the time being, Prince will be extra careful turning into his driveway.
“If you live in this neighborhood, you better have good brakes and a higher car that can be seen,” he said.
Accidents within 1000 feet east/west of Hoover Road/116th Street
Accident Year Property Damage Personal Injury
2012 2 1
2013 1 1
2014 0 3
Source: Carmel Police Department
