Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Beacon has received data on Cincinnati’s top five intersections for collisions.  Presumably, these are the very dangerous intersections posing such a public safety threat, that we need to install red-light cameras to avoid imminent death.  We do not have any data on how many people die per year at these five intersections, if any die at all.  We also have no details about injuries, nor the amount of damage done.  These are just the five intersections with the most accidents.

The top five intersection crash locations are (based on statistics from the CPD for 2006-07) are: 

Rank.......................................Amount...........................Location

1.............................................133................................IR 75 EX / IR 74 Ex

2.............................................83..................................Clifton Av/Martin Luther King Dr

3.............................................81..................................Harrison Av / Queen City Av

4.............................................73..................................Colerain Av / North Bend Rd

5.............................................70..................................Madison Rd / Red Bank EX

This is a grand total of 440 accidents in one year.  As we reported earlier, these numbers are very low compared to the landscape of accidents as a whole.  In 2007, Red Light Violations accounted for only 3% of citations issued by the Cincinnati Police Department, and total citations in all of 2007 for red light violations that resulted in crashes equaled 538 of more than 17,000 collisions.

These five intersections represent 2.5% of the collisions that happened in 2007.  And remember, some research indicates that these cameras simply replace t-bone side collisions for rear-end collisions. 

In any event, if the pro-camera people are taken at their word, we have a public safety issue with these five intersections.  Any idea what it would cost to install “Dangerous Intersection Ahead” signs at these locations?  I think a fundraiser is in order…

Thank you for reading (and printing from) The Cincinnati Beacon.