Tempe Police assigned extra patrol cars to the city’s top 10 collision locations Friday as part of a special safety enforcement campaign to reduce accidents.
Police will be looking for people making dangerous left turns, running red lights, speeding up to and out of intersections and not paying attention, Tempe Police Sgt. Dale Hoobler said.
More patrol usually leads to more tickets given out, Hoobler said.
Tempe Police will increase patrol cars on Monday, Friday and Feb. 27, as part of the campaign.
Most of the intersections with the highest number of collisions are near the Tempe campus.
Secondary education freshman Shawn Berry commutes to his Tempe classes, but avoids driving near campus as much as possible because of the packed intersections.
Tempe Police ranked the intersection at University Drive and Rural Road as the second worst.
Berry said he has seen near-accidents between cars and bicyclists at the intersection, populated largely by restaurants and apartment complexes.
“It’s all college students who are stressed,” Berry said.
Tempe Police receives a yearly grant from the Arizona Government Office for Highway Safety to be spent on increased officers. Tempe Police establishes the focus for these officers every year, and decided this year’s would be decreasing accidents.
Tempe Police is working to reduce accidents using high visibility and proactive enforcement, Hoobler said.
“You can never really predict when that one person is going to push that red light and run it,” Hoobler said.
Tempe Police conduct safety enforcement campaigns at different times of the year to compare activity, Hoobler said.
Traffic volume is higher during ASU’s fall and spring semesters than during school breaks, Hoobler said.
“You add more cars anywhere, and chances are going to go up by shear statistics,” Hoobler said.
Music theater performance junior Lèana Courtney stays in Tempe during the summer and notices a decrease in traffic.
She said there is still a rush from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Tempe during the summer, but the rush isn’t as bad as the fall and spring traffic she tries to avoid by going to school before 8 a.m.
The number of accidents in Tempe has declined slowly over the years, Hoobler said.
Tempe had 6,658 crashes in 2010, down from the 8,453 collisions in 2000, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.
“I would like to think a lot of it has to do with our enforcement efforts and our presence out there,” Hoobler said.
Top 10 Tempe intersections for collisions
1. Southern Avenue and Rural Road
2. Rural Road and University Drive
3. 5000 South Arizona Mills Circle
4. Broadway and Rural roads
5. Baseline Road and I-10 Freeway
6. Mill and Southern avenues
7. McClintock Drive and Baseline Road
8. Broadway Road and McClintock Drive
9. Priest Drive and Elliot Road
10. Guadalupe Road and McClintock Drive
Source: Tempe Police press release
Reach the reporter at michelle.peirano@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
