Open intersection accident numbers low in comparison

Trying to respond to residents' concerns over the danger of open intersections, Libby City Council members started to wonder if any one spot had a high frequency of accidents.

In a report to the council by police chief Clay Coker during Tuesday night's meeting, the answer seemed loud and clear.

“No one intersection really jumps out as being a super-bad intersection,” Coker said.

Coker based that comment on an 18-month study of accidents within the police department's jurisdiction. The period covered all of 2007 and the first six months of 2008. Within that timeframe, there were 202 accidents.

“We have 125 to 150 accidents a year every year so I thought that far back would probably be a good representation,” Coker said. “Of that, only 16 were stop-sign related where there weren't any stop signs.”

That translates to 92.1 percent of accidents in the study occurring elsewhere in the city.

“Most of the accidents in Libby are on Highway 2, the part of Highway 2 that passes through our jurisdiction,” Coker said. “So, that's mainly where all the accidents are - at stoplights or lane changes or rear-ends, various kinds of things.”

Coker said that four or five years ago, the council considered eliminating all open intersections in town.

“They were looking at going and getting rid of all the open intersections, say one quarter of the city at a time,” Coker said. “But there's a lot of cost involved with that.”

Montana state law allows open intersections so cities are not required to do anything. Recently, the council voted in a couple different stop signs and asked Coker to look at accident statistics to possibly identify a problem intersection.

“What they're complaining about generally is speeding and near-misses,” council member Doug Roll said in reference to complaints he's heard from residents. “A lot of them have little kids. I've had complaints about people speeding by.”

Naturally, near-misses and speeding do not play into intersection stats on accidents.

“It's worst in the winter time with the snow berms. You can't see and that usually slows people down,” Coker said. “But nothing really jumps out as any worse location than the other.”

The open intersections in Libby are all located in residential neighborhoods. When two cars approach an intersection with no stop signs, the car on the driver's right has the right-of-way. In addition, Montana state law sets the residential neighborhood speed limit at 25 mph.

The city council did not take any action on the issue.