A HIGH number of car crashes over the years has the city looking at how to make one of its intersections safer.
The intersection of Keith Ave. and Kenney St. on the southside, which has stop signs for Keith Ave. traffic but none on Kenney, is third from the top for accidents and will see improvements to try and reduce these numbers.
The city will add rumble strips and signs telling drivers there are stop signs ahead on Keith Ave. as crash numbers weren't high enough compared to traffic volume to warrant a four-way stop intersection.
“Basically, there's not a significant crash history for the volume of traffic that is carried through that intersection,” said city chief administrator Don Ramsay.
The intersection, from 2005 – 2011, has seen 18 collisions, according to statistics provided to the city by ICBC, he said.
But following an April 23 collision at the intersection which required that a woman be extracted form her vehicle using the jaws of life, Ramsay said the city looked at how to bring that number down.
Using numbers provided by ICBC, the city determined that of 18 reported collisions, 13 were t-bone type crashes.
Out of those 13, six of them involved a vehicle traveling eastbound on Keith colliding with a car traveling northbound on Kenney St.
“Based on those statistics, we were advised that the intersection did not meet [requirements] for a four-way stop,” said Ramsay. “It was recommended that we look at visibility of the stop signs.”
The signs were found to be well placed and visible but there are visual distractions in the area that could be contributing to collisions, he said.
The remedy applied, then, is to remind drivers to stop by adding rumble strips and signs warning drivers of stop signs ahead.
“Hopefully that will improve things,” said Ramsay.
The city will continue to monitor crash numbers there, he added.
Kenney St. at Hwy16 and Kalum St. and Hwy16 both top the Kenney St. and Keith Ave. intersection for traffic and crash numbers.
But both have traffic lights already, explained Ramsey.
“We don't have any obvious remedies other than encouraging drivers to pay more attention,” he said.