OKLAHOMA CITY – Anyone hoping to avoid a fender bender will want to read on.
Leaders in Oklahoma City released their list of the top 10 most dangerous intersections in the city.
The intersection of Belle Isle and Northwest Expressway is the dubious leader with the most accidents over the last several years.
“I can see how; it is pretty dangerous,” one driver said.
“It’s not something I want my daughter driving through for sure,” another driver said.
“The intersection at Belle Isle and Northwest Expressway is more complicated than most,” Oklahoma City public works director Eric Wenger said.
In recent years, city engineers placed a concrete barrier at the intersection to cut down on crashes and the numbers have fallen from 86 in 2009, to 64 in 2010 and 58 last year.
Still, the intersection continues to lead the list.
“As much as we put up signs and engineer, we are finding cars that make illegal turns from Northwest Expressway,” Wenger said.
In addition to Belle Isle, seven of the 10 worst intersections run down Northwest Expressway.
From Rockwell, Portland, 63rd St., Hefner Parkway and Penn rank one through six as the intersections with the most car crashes since 2009.
“It’s a high-traffic street,” Wenger said. “Most of the intersections see 50,000 cars a day go through them.”
“People just get impatient sitting at long red lights,” one driver said.
“The number of people that run red lights is absolutely amazing,” another said.
Two intersections not on Northwest Expressway that made the list include Meridian and the 39th Expressway, as well as Reno at MacArthur.
Yet in most cases driver error, not the design of the roads, is the real culprit.
OKC’s top 10 most dangerous intersections:
1. N.W. Expressway and Belle Isle Blvd.
2. N.W. Expressway and Rockwell
3. N.W. Expressway and Portland
4. N.W. Expressway and N.W. 63rd St.
5. N.W. Expressway and Lake Hefner Parkway (east side)
6. N.W. Expressway and Pennsylvania Ave.
7. N.W. 39th Expressway and Meridian
8. N. MacArthur and Reno Ave.
9. S. Western Ave. and S.W. 59th St.
10. N.W. Expressway and Lake Hefner Parkway (west side)
