Indy Officials Identify 10 Most Dangerous Intersections

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Department of Public Works has begun a program to identify and improve the safety of dangerous intersections in Marion County.

DPW said it is developing a database of the top 100 intersections with the highest accident rate. The top 10 intersections were identified in a news release.

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Indy Officials Identify 10 Most Dangerous Intersections
Survey: Dangerous Intersections

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Officials said the goal of the database is to give engineers an opportunity to come up with strategies to improve the intersections and relieve congestion.

DPW officials said the database will take physical and operational characteristics of the streets into account, along with traffic volume, turns and accident data from 2003 until present.

West Washington Street at the entrance to the Indianapolis Zoo has been pegged as the first intersection to get improvements based upon the data.

Rumble strips were being installed on West Washington Street Wednesday to let motorists know that they are coming to a stop light. Traffic lights will also be made brighter at the intersection, which was the scene of a double-fatal crash in 2005.

The top 10 intersections targeted for improvement include:

Southport Road and Emerson Avenue

56th Street and Georgetown Road

10th Street and Tibbs Avenue

71st Street and Georgetown Road

71st Street and Michigan Road

38th Street and High School Road

79th Street and Michigan Road

Raymond Street and Shelby Street

62nd Street and Allisonville Road

Georgetown Road and Lafayette Road

"As part of the improvements to these intersections, these are all the different things that are going to be looked at: signage, lighting, traffic signals," said Steve Hardiman of DPW.

There was no set timetable for improvements to be completed and the amount of funding needed to do the work was not immediately known.

State Farm insurance company said Indianapolis is home to four of the 10 most dangerous intersections in the state. Those intersections include:

86th Street and Michigan Road

71st Street and Michigan Road

86th Street and Township Line Road

21st Street and Shadeland Avenue

Safety improvements at those four intersections will be paid by federal funding.