Center-line rumble strips, reducing the speed limit and installing a speed monitoring device to alert motorists were all improvements suggested — though ultimately never acted upon — eight months ago during a safety review of a deadly section of Roosevelt Drive in Derby.
But those safety suggestions — and the possibility of banning some tractor-trailer traffic — are all on the table again after the July 29 death of 25-year-old Seymour resident Nicole McDonald.
McDonald died after her SUV collided head-on with a tractor-trailer in the section of Roosevelt Drive referred to locally as “Pink House Cove.”
The photo above shows the aftermath of the crash.
A Newtown native, McDonald was married with an 8‑year-old daughter. A fund has been set up to help the girl.
The crash remains under investigation.
Deja Vu
McDonald is the fourth person to die since 2010 on Roosevelt Drive (aka state Route 34) between Cullens Hill Road and Lakeview Terrace.
Now residents and Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri are demanding the state Department of Transportation do something to improve safety on the state road. A meeting between state and local officials is being scheduled.
The officials should have lots of information handy, because such a meeting already happened last year.
Amidst a year-long increase in the number of wrecks — and two deaths — within that one-mile stretch of Roosevelt Drive, officials met in November 2012 to discuss possible fixes.
The meeting was arranged by Rick Dunne, a Derby resident and executive director of the Valley Council of Governments, a regional planning agency. Dunne had reached out to residents and motorists on social media and local news outlets to solicit suggestions as to how to improve the road.
Unfortunately, it’s now clear the November meeting between Valley COG, the DOT and Derby police was not productive.
(The photo below shows the aftermath of a head-on Roosevelt Drive crash from Nov. 23, 2012)
Improvements Made
After the Nov. 27 meeting, several cosmetic improvements were made to the one-mile stretch on Roosevelt Drive between Cullens Hill and Lakeview.
DOT crews re-painted the lines on the road. Derby police said the DOT replaced outdated, faded road signs with federally mandated retroreflective signs.
Crews also trimmed brush to improve sight-lines for motorists.
The meeting also stated the obvious — police have a hard time targeting speeders within the one-mile stretch because there are not many places to pull drivers over.
Improvements Rejected
But other suggestions were either rejected or never followed up on.
According to draft minutes from the meeting provided by the DOT to the Valley Indy, center-line “rumble strips” were suggested as a possible safety improvement.
The so-called “Pink House Cove” stretch of Roosevelt Drive has a few sharp turns. At points there are large retaining walls or rock outcroppings on one side of the road, and a guard rail above the Housatonic River on the other.
The stretch of road is an extremely dangerous spot to drive drunk, fall asleep at the wheel, or do anything that causes the driver to be distracted and cross the line into oncoming traffic.
At the Nov. 27 safety pow-wow, Dunne suggested rumble strips as a way to alert drivers who drift out of their lanes.
In an e‑mail to the Valley Indy last week, Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the DOT, said that while rumble strips were discussed for the center line, they were “ultimately rejected because they generate a lot of noise.”
Reducing the 40-mph speed limit was also discussed at the meeting last year, but the current speed was deemed appropriate.
The possibility of Derby police and Valley COG searching for money to pay for a “permanent speed monitoring device” to alert motorists of their speed was also discussed Nov. 27.
The DOT would provide the hardware and install the device, but Derby would pay to provide electricity and maintenance.
However, that idea went nowhere.
Derby police said the city would not search for money to be used on a state-owned highway.
No outside funding to help Derby pay for a permanent device has been secured.
(A copy of the draft minutes from the November meeting is posted below. The article continues after the document)
The November Meeting by ValleyIndyDotOrg
Crash Stats
Since 2010, four people have died in separate crashes along the one-mile of Roosevelt Drive.
The dates are as follows:
- Oct. 24, 2012
- July 29, 2012
- July 29, 2013
The following number of accidents have happened annually, according to the DOT:
2007: 7
2008: 6
2009: 3
2010: 7
2011: 4
2012: 11 (per this document supplied to the DOT by Derby PD)
Here is a slightly closer look at the 2012 wrecks:
5-22-2012: Rear end accident, 150 feet west of Lakeview Terrace
5-30-2012: Vehicle struck a tree down in the road, 1,000 feet south of Cullens Hill Road
6 – 3‑2012: Car into wall, 1,000 feet south of Cullens Hill Road
6-28-2012: Three-car rear-end accident, 300 feet west of Lakeview Terrace
6-28-2012: Rear-end accident, 300 feet west of Lakeview Terrace
6-29-2012: Rear-end accident, at Lakeview Terrace
8-12-2012: One car rollover, 100 feet west of Cullens Hill Road
10-19-2012: Head-on crash, 200 feet of Cullens Hill Road
10-24-2012: “Open case,” fatal crash at Lakeview Terrace
10-27-2012: Sideswipe, at Pink House Cove
11-23-2012: Head-on crash, driver fell asleep at the wheel, no specific location given
Why Are People Crashing?
After the Nov. 27 safety meeting last year, Derby police were to “provide the DOT with additional information if there were patterns or type-specific accidents that could lead to a causal conclusion, e.g. head-on collisions, sideswipes …”
Derby Deputy Police Chief Scott Todd said Aug. 2 the wrecks don’t follow a clear pattern — but that speed wasn’t a factor in the fatalities.
“There were no clear patterns found in the information provided to DOT, other than the fact that all three fatal accidents were head-on collisions,” Todd said in an e‑mail. “The one thing that I will state, for the record, is that speed was not a factor in the vast majority of the accidents that have been investigated on that stretch of road, and speed was not a factor in any of the three fatal accidents that have been investigated on that stretch of roadway since 2010.”
But Dunne, of the Valley COG, said traffic planners from his agency and engineers from the DOT still need Derby police to provide more detailed information about the 2012 wrecks before drawing conclusions. The type of fix depends on the type of problem, if any, Dunne said.
“Without that info, we’re just shooting in the dark,” Dunne said. “We’re just spending money to put in improvements that we are guessing may help. Was someone speeding? Was someone texting? Was someone driving drunk? We need more information.”
(The photo below shows another car from a Nov. 23, 2012 head-on crash on Roosevelt Drive between Cullens Hill Road and Lakeview Terrace. The article continues below)
Dunne’s home in Derby isn’t far from Roosevelt Drive. The 2012 spike in crashes and the number of deaths is alarming, he said.
“I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 50 years. I don’t recall more than a couple over a 30-year-period. And now we’re seeing four fatalities in three years?”
Dunne said the road’s shortcomings — a retaining wall, a rock outcropping and narrow shoulders — are nothing new.
“I believe it’s distracted drivers, speed and tractor-trailers that shouldn’t be on that road. That’s what I believe,” Dunne said.
Underlying Crash Data, 2007 – 2011
The DOT provided the Valley Indy with crash data for every accident in the area of Pink House Cove from 2007 to 2011.
A review of that data shows speed and animals (deer) are the most common underlying factors.
There were 27 accidents between Cullens Hill Road and Lakeview Terrace between 2007 and 2011.
Speed was an underlying factor in six of the 27 crashes.
- “Animal or other obstruction” was also cited as an underlying factor in six of the 27 crashes.
- A driver lost control in five of the 27 crashes.
- Following too closely was an underlying factor in four of the 27 crashes.
- Three of the 27 crashes involved a motorist making an improper passing maneuver
- One driver fell asleep
- One driver failed to grant the right of way
- One driver’s view was obstructed
Political Pressure Mounts
The latest death on Roosevelt Drive, plus the pressure being applied by Derby’s Mayor Staffieri, could result in a more effective study of the “Pink House Cove” stretch and tie up the ends left hanging from last year’s safety review.
“We routinely meet with DOT on our (downtown Derby Route 34 widening project), but now the mayor wants to address the safety issues,” Sheila O’Malley, the mayor’s chief administrative officer, said in an e‑mail to the Valley Indy July 30. “We are in the process of also setting up a meeting with the state delegation regarding same.”
In an article published July 30 in the New Haven Register, state Rep. Themis Klarides, R‑Derby, said the Valley’s state representatives in Hartford are keeping an eye on the situation.
“I’m certainly not an engineer and have no way of understanding what needs to be done to make this area safer, but I can assure you that we are all committed to take whatever steps necessary based on the engineers and DOTs assessment of what needs to be done,” Klarides said.
Staffieri also mentioned past efforts in Derby to prevent tractor-trailer traffic on Route 34 — something likely to come up again when he meets with the DOT.
Len Greene, Jr., a former state representative who lives off Roosevelt Drive in Seymour, said officials have to stay on top of the issue, because the DOT tends to listen — and then do nothing.
(The photo below shows the aftermath of the July 26 fatal crash on Roosevelt Drive in Derby)
While in office in 2011, Greene wrote a letter to the DOT asking the agency to put a traffic light at the intersection of Roosevelt Drive and Route 188 in Seymour. The letter was prompted after a car cruised through the intersection and crashed into a house. Greene’s letter also said the DOT needs to look at Roosevelt Drive as a whole from the Stevenson Dam in Oxford to the Derby Dam in Derby.
“I live on (Route) 34. I know what kind of a road it is. I know how dangerous it is,” Greene said. “The DOT commissioner responded to my first question about the traffic light, basically saying there was no money to do it. But he completely ignored my second request.”
Click here for a guest column on the issue, written by Greene.
DOT officials said they will work with the locals.
“We would be happy to meet local officials as we consider whether any additional signage, flashing lights, widening, or other ‘traffic calming’ measures might be warranted,” Everhart, the DOT spokesman, said. “If speed was a factor in (the July 26) accident, that’s an enforcement issue for the local PD, as you know.”
Everhart’s words echo what the DOT told the Valley Indy in 2012, after several serious crashes.
“Overwhelmingly, when a crash occurs, it is because someone has failed to adhere to the rules of the road, whether it is the speed limit or reducing speed in poor conditions,” DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said at the time.
All the improvements in the world won’t mean a thing if drivers don’t obey the rules of the road, Nursick said.
“They know the rules of the road. If they obey them, there should not be a problem,” he said. “If they are not obeying them, enforcement needs to be there so there is a sting associated with not obeying the rules. And all of this has to be done with a reasonable infrastructure.”
Why Not Rumble?
The installation of center-line rumble strips somewhere within Pink House Cove stretch of Roosevelt Drive seems like a no-brainer, especially if so-called “distracted drivers” are the root cause of the crashes.
While DOT officials worried last year noise from the strips could annoy residents along Roosevelt Drive, the Pink House Cove stretch is not densely populated, thanks to the fact Osbornedale State Park stretches along the shoulder on one side and the Housatonic River is on the other.
The rumble strip noise could, however, be carried across the water to river-front houses in Shelton.
In addition to noise, Roosevelt Drive technically does not qualify for rumble strips under the state DOT guidelines (speed limit is supposed to be 45 mph).
But Dunne, of Valley COG, said he thinks the DOT will allow Roosevelt Drive to be included in a pilot program the DOT is doing regarding center-line rumble strips.
In fact, the state DOT loves center-line rumble strips, calling them “proven safety countermeasures” to head-on and sideswipe crashes.
A 2005 National Cooperative Highway Research Program study concluded that center-line rumble strips can reduce head-on and sideswipe injury crashes by 25 percent.
Here’s a 14-minute love letter from the Federal Highway Administration regarding rumble “strips” and rumble “stripes:” Article continues below.
In Washington state, center-line rumble strips reduced “crossover collisions” with serious or fatal injuries by 57 percent.
An unlikely solution to any Roosevelt Drive problem — rebuilding the road to eliminate the curves and widen the lanes between Cullens Hill Road and Lakeview Terrace.
Dunne said such a project would probably encourage motorists to drive even faster.
Even if all the necessary permits were obtained and the funding was in place, such a project would take years to complete, Dunne said.
Meanwhile, the 11,300 vehicles a day that travel on Roosevelt Drive between the Seymour town line and North Avenue in Derby would still be traveling on an accident-prone road.
“It doesn’t even give us a short-term solution to the problem,” Dunne said.
All crash photos in this article were contributed.
