‘Safety corridors’ along Arizona freeways saw fewer crashes in 2017
Jan 19, 2018, 4:35 AM
(Flickr photo)
(Flickr photo)
PHOENIX — It’s officially been a year since four “safety corridors” were placed along several Arizona highways in high-fatality crash areas and state officials said they are helping reduce the number of accidents.
According to Bart Graves, a spokesman with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the number of crashes have gone down in three of the four corridors.
The four-mile corridor along the Interstate 10 in downtown Phoenix has seen 56 fewer crashes in 2017 compared to 2016, Graves said.
Another corridor, which stretches 23 miles along the eastbound I-10, from the Loop 202 to just north of Casa Grande, saw 40 fewer crashes during that same period.
The 23-mile stretch of road along the Interstate 40 near Kingman in northwest Arizona saw two fewer crashes, Graves said.
But one “safety corridor” actually saw an increase in the number of crashes: A 13-mile stretch of the U.S. 60 from Loop 101 to Loop 202 saw more crashes in 2017 compared to 2016.
Graves did not specify how many more crashes occurred, but said it is mostly due to the number of people on the road and “driver error.”
“Arizona’s population continues to increase and gas prices are low, so there’s more people driving and making bad mistakes,” he said.
Graves said officials will keep the corridors for at least another year in order to gather more data and get a stronger assessment of its effectiveness.
KTAR News’ Atlan Hassard contributed to this report.
