Fatal accident numbers decrease in Greene, Fayette
Waynesburg Borough Police patrolman Nathan Hamilton sets up a digital “Your Speed” sign along Greene Street in April that shows motorists how fast they are going in a posted zone. Police Chief Robert Toth said the sign is a “good deterrent for speed” and has been a successful tool for police.
Greene County has seen a reduction in fatal crashes and fatalities between 2015 and 2016.
With the state Department of Transportation’s recent report that the number of traffic deaths in Pennsylvania reached a record low in 2016, PennDOT officials and local police departments said they’ll continue their efforts to keep the roadways safe.
Last week, PennDOT reported that 1,188 fatalities occurred along Pennsylvania roadways in 2016, which is the lowest number since the record keeping began in 1928.
“One fatality is one too many,” said Joe Szczur, District Executive for PennDOT District 12, which covers 3,700 miles of roadways in Greene, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties. “But we’re continuing to see a downward trend in fatalities, but that can change.”
Szczur said before the 82 fatalities in District 12 in 2016, the all-time low the district had was 83 fatalities in 2013, which then jumped to all-time highs in 2014 with 94 deaths and then in 2015 with 98 deaths.
In Greene County from 2015 to 2016, the number of both fatal crashes and fatalities went from 6 to 5; and from 2015 to 2016 in Fayette County, PennDOT reported that the number of fatal crashes dropped from 25 to 19 and the number of fatalities dropped from 28 to 22.
“It’s frustrating,” he said, noting the department emphasizes the four E’s with traffic safety: education, enforcement, emergency response and engineering improvements.
Szczur said such efforts have been made in those areas including PennDOT safety officers visiting schools, working with local law enforcement and state police, working with county managers to identify traffic problems to be corrected and upgrading and updating highways and making safety enhancements.
An anticipated PennDOT project this year for Fayette County is safety improvements to sections of Route 119 and a project currently under construction are improvements at the intersection of National Pike and Farmington-Ohiopyle Road.
Projects in Greene County include the current construction at Bailey’s Crossroads at the intersection of Route 21 and Route 1021 in Cumberland Township as well as ongoing projects currently along various state roads in Greene County for guide rail improvements and repairs.
Waynesburg Borough Police Chief Robert Toth said high visibility enforcement has helped slow down speeders.
Toth said other than trying to have multiple officers on patrol, police have set up decoy cars where either an officer will be inside or the car is empty.
“Sometimes just the visual effect will make people hit the brakes,” Toth said. “If you can get them to slow down, then we’re winning.”
Another tool Toth’s department uses is the digital “Your Speed” sign that shows motorists how fast they’re going in a posted zone.
“It’s a good deterrent for speed,” Toth said. “We’ve had a lot of success with that.”
Toth said areas on which they try to concentrate are the straight and more open streets on which people will tend to drive faster like Routes 19 and 21.
In Toth’s experience, the top two reasons for accidents is speed and distracted driving as he recalled an incident where a man was reaching for a piece of mail he dropped inside his vehicle and wound up hitting an unoccupied police car.
“If you’re driving at a high rate of speed, it takes you longer to slow down, and if you’re distracted, you’re not going to react quickly enough,” Toth said.
“If you have a distraction, try to slow down even more.”
In Fayette County, Masontown Police Chief Joe Ryan said with a smaller police department, they’ve tried their best to reduce the number of crashes in the borough.
“We do speed enforcement the best we can with the time we have with one officer on duty,” Ryan said, adding that even that effort has shown some results.
Ryan said police concentrate on Route 21 because of the higher speed limit as well as it being a straight highway.
In Ryan’s experience, the majority of vehicle crashes have occurred from motorists not paying attention to their surroundings.
Speed is a close second, he said.
“Slow down and pay better attention to what’s in front of you,” he said.
Szczur said the number-one factor in accidents is usually speed and obeying speed limits for conditions.
“The speed-limit signs are out there for a reason,” he said.
“In this day and age, everyone is in a hurry and that leads to not just accidents, but severe accidents.”