Wright County looks at fatal intersection; ranked 153rd worst

Wright County Commissioner Dick Mattson has ordered a traffic study to be done of the intersection where a fatal accident recently took place that took the life of Madey Kleve of Howard Lake, as well as injured the HLWW valedictorian and salutatorian.

Mattson contacted the Department of Transportation, with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann also being apprised of the situation.  The objective is to see what can be done to avoid future accidents.  According to MnDOT, the intersection of Highway 55 and Wright County Road 6 is ranked 153rd worst in that MnDOT district for non-signalized intersections. “The crash rate and severity rate are less than half of the statewide average rates. There is a slight “skew” to the intersection, but sight distance is adequate,” commented Brad Larsen of MnDOT.

Speed counters were set up at the location to simulate the same time of day and conditions, according to engineer Thomas Dumont.

If several conditions are met for traffic warrants (criteria), it is possible that a traffic light or some other solution may be installed there.

“In 2001 we did a project at this intersection that added left turn lanes on Trunk Highway 55, ” commented Brad Larsen of MnDOT “intersection lighting (which obviously lights the intersection at night but also helps to identify it as an “intersection” during the day), and red flashing lights on the Wright County Road 6 stop signs. Prior to that project, we were averaging about three crashes per year at this intersection. After that project we are averaging one crash per year.”

“While the data does not indicate that this is a ‘problem intersection’, the unfortunate recent fatal crash happened here. It is my understanding that the crash happened during daylight hours (about 6 p.m.) and the pavement was dry. In discussing this with our district traffic engineer and the Wright County engineer, and considering the improvement in safety achieved with our 2001 project (turn lanes, lighting); we have not determined what else can be done at this intersection. We will conduct a traffic count at this intersection this summer to determine if traffic counts are high enough to warrant signalization. Given the ADT counts referenced above, we suspect that warrants are not met for signalization; however, the hourly traffic counts will determine that,” Larsen noted.