After almost eight months of completion of University Parkway, the intersection of Unversity Parkway – the road heading away from USI’s campus – and Indiana 66 has had nine accidents, the most recent involving a death.
University Parkway is a county road which tees into Indiana 66, a state road. Indiana Departmant of Transportation (INDOT) oversaw the connection which opened in May 2012.
On Jan. 6, a 92-year-old woman died after running a stop sign going north on University Parkway and striking a car heading east on Indiana 66.
Six of the nine accidents reported near the intersection involved vehicles going norhtbound from University Parkway and crossing into Indiana 66. All were driver’s error – falling asleep at the wheel, texting while driving or alcohol/drug involvement.
Nearby resident Alex Schautz said he is surprised the death was the first fatal accident at the intersection.
“It’s not every day that you see a four-lane (road) suddenly stop with nothing more than a stop sign,” Schautz said.
In the evenings, it can be difficult turning left onto University Parkway from Indiana 66, he said.
“You can’t see the turn coming,” he said. “You have to predict the turn and start turning at a 45-degree angle, otherwise you miss it.”
He said he requested more signs at the intersection.
University Parkway is a county road which tees into Indiana 66, a state road. Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) oversaw the connection which opened in May 2012.
Cher Elliott, INDOT’s media relations director, said the state would not open a road if it broke state or federal law.
The state has to provide county roads with stop signs when the road is a new intersecting road, but the state doesn’t have to maintain the signs after supplying them, she said.
With the speed limit of 55 mph on northbound University Parkway, there is a highway junction sign, a yellow T intersection sign, two stop ahead warning signs, which are followed by two stop signs – one on the median and another on the shoulder.
Elliot said INDOT decided to use two oversized 36-inch stop signs and shorter posts to put the signs closer to the pavement in a better in line of sight for drivers.
“In an area with a new traffic pattern, we think of what we can do in our guidelines to help,” she said.
She said the intersection does not require overhead lighting nor rumble strips by state law.
When a member of the public makes an inqury, INDOT will look at recent data, but it will not do a “full-blown” study unless there changes to the area, she said.
Because the road is new, it will take time for motorists to adjust, she said.
Vanderburgh County Engineer John Stoll said the T intersection is different from most.
“We don’t have any (intersections) like that in the county,” he said.
He said the county has received requests for additional signs to Indiana 66 besides the single, green informational sign that tells motorists 1,500 feet before the turn which turn is to University Parkway and Saint Joseph Road.
He said he believed additional signage would not have stopped the accident.
“It’s a new intersection with two busy roads,” Vanderburgh Sheriff Eric Williams said. “It is a little difficult to see because there is no lighting out there.”
The recent death generated more comments about the intersection, Williams said.
Williams said both roads are designed for faster travel, and he asked drivers to be aware of the surroundings when traveling.
