Warning lights planned for beltway intersections

Friday, July 11, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

Clark County Public Works plans to have new warning lights on the Las Vegas Beltway by early next year.

The lights will warn motorists on the beltway, also known as Interstate 215, that they are approaching an intersection with a traffic light that is or will soon be red. The work fulfills a commitment made by Public Works Director Martin Manning in September after a string of fatal accidents occurred along the highway.

A Las Vegas Sun analysis found that accidents along the beltway tended to result in fatalities at about three times the national rate -- 18 per 1,000 accidents versus six per 1,000 nationally. National studies have also found that warning lights before intersections -- particularly where traffic flows at relatively high speeds, as it does on the beltway -- can reduce both the number and severity of accidents.

The department plans to have the warning lights, which cost about $35,000 per intersection, installed at all the "signalized intersections" from Rainbow Boulevard to Summerlin Parkway by December. The second phase of work will put the warning lights on the beltway from Cheyenne Avenue to Interstate 15, near Nellis Air Force Base, and should be complete by February 2004, said John Toth, Public Works manager to traffic management.

The first phase of work is out for bid now, and the second should go out to bid within a few weeks, he said.

Toth said that based on previous research, the community could see a reduction of 75 percent of rear-end accidents on the beltway and 30 percent for right-angle crashes. He said the particular situations for each intersection will have an impact on those figures.

Public Works said last September that the lights would go up as soon as funding was available. Warnings had already gone up at Jones Boulevard, Durango Drive and Tropicana Avenue intersections on the beltway.

Other lights at intersections, including the one at Rainbow Boulevard, have gotten extra-bright signals, known as light-emitting diode signals, that can be seen for long distances along the highway, Toth said.

"We thought that putting the LEDs up in the signal heads would be good enough," Toth said. "We were giving them a mile of visibility. We get complaints that they are too bright."

Toth and other traffic engineers ran up against a problem that says a lot about human nature: The safest road in the world can be a killing field with an unsafe driver.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Angie Wolff said that since last September, five people have died on the beltway, all victims of what police call "rollover" accidents.

Single-person, fatal accidents occurred near or at the following intersections, Wolff said: at Tropicana, El Capitan Way, Losee Road, Cheyenne and most recently, July 3 at Decatur.

Wolff said the accidents are occurring because people are not paying attention and are driving too fast for conditions.

Toth said the March 2001 collision that killed two Leona Greif, 61, and Marcia Nathans, 65, is an example of bad driving, not a bad road. Karen Morris, 35, was placed on five years probation and ordered to spend 26 weekends in jail after she pled guilty to three counts of felony reckless driving in the accident.

"If you look at the Karen Morris incident, most people realize she ran the light at Durango," Toth said. "Eyewitnesses said she also ran the light at Rainbow."

But some observers said aspects of the beltway's design make it more unsafe than other roads. True interstate highways are considered, mile-for-mile, as the safest type of roadway.

The beltway, despite its moniker, is a mix of federal and state highways, relatively low-speed surface roads, intersections and interchanges. Some experts believe that the road design encourages people to drive like it is a federal highway, at high speeds. That is dangerous on a roadway, such as the beltway, which has intersections and is designed in parts for 45 mph traffic.

Erin Breen, director of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas' Safe Community Partnership, said the design of the highway contributes to problems.

"Drivers should be cognizant of the fact that it is a dangerous situation," she said.

The warnings should help, she said.

"They do have some effect, yes," Breen said. "That's the short answer, especially in that kind of environment."

The safest highway would be one that is a full interstate along the entire length, she said.

But Public Works and county elected officials say that the $600 million roadway, scheduled for initial completion this year, will need more than $800 million more to convert the highway until a full interstate. Funding approved by voters last year and the Legislature in the spring session should provide much of that funding, but it could take another decade for the full interstate to be completed.

Breen warned that people need to be careful on any road.

"There's the rub," she said. "You can't engineer for human behavior."

The lights, she added, "are a stopgap."