The Derby Fire Department shared this photo after a car crashed on Sentinel Hill Road.
DERBY — After two serious car crashes, residents of the Academy Hill Road area are asking the police department for help to make the steep cut-through safer.
The intersection of Academy Hill at High Street is a particular area of concern, according to statements made at the Sept. 12 meeting of the Derby Police Commission.
Speeding is a constant problem on Academy Hill and Sentinel Hill, both of which are heavily residential in addition to being narrow and curvy in spots.
The roads are idyllic — Witek Park is off Sentinel Hill (where Sentinel and Academy meet) and the high point of Academy Hill gives a nice view of the Valley.
But more and more jerks seem to be driving on it.
Motorists in a rush use it as a cut through to get back and forth from Route 34 in east Derby to Route 115 in Ansonia and points elsewhere.
Neighbors Describe The Problems
Derby City/Town Clerk Marc Garofalo lives on Academy Hill Road. He said he was recently traveling on the road when a vehicle came up from behind and passed him along with the car in front of him — an extremely dangerous move on Sentinel Hill Road.
“It’s getting worse than it ever was,” Garofalo said.
Resident John Bartone said his property is damaged by vehicles about every two months. He asked whether lights or additional stop signs could be installed to improve safety.
“It’s just a chronic problem that’s probably going to get worse as people get a little more crazy out there,” Bartone told the police commission.
On Aug. 29, a vehicle on Sentinel Hill Road crashed into a utility pole and flipped over at about 11 p.m. The driver was taken to the Yale-New Haven Hospital trauma center. The accident caused a widespread power outage.
The commission was also in receipt of an email from a concerned resident who noted that it was the second serious wreck on the road in a short time.
“One of these days someone is going to die (it has happened there before),” she wrote. “People race down the hill and can’t navigate the curve.”
Police: Here’s What We’re Doing
Both Derby Police Department Chief Gerald Narowski and Deputy Chief Scott Todd were in attendance at the police commission meeting, which was held using the Zoom video conferencing platform.
Deputy Chief Todd said police have deployed a digital radar trailer to slow traffic on Sentinel Hill.
Patrol cars have been assigned to radar enforcement on the road, too.
Academy Hill Road is a tough road to control because there’s no room to sit on the side of the road to use radar, Scott said. Patrol cars have to use roads that connect to Academy Hill, which isn’t ideal for enforcement purposes, the deputy chief said.
There is also a ‘caution’ light on the road, but it doesn’t work. Todd said the city’s Department of Public Works is looking into what has to be done to repair the light.
“The last time we repaired it I believe it was in the range of five to six thousand dollars,” Todd said.
Speed bumps or similar devices would create a dangerous situation because the “traffic-calming” devices aren’t meant to be put on steep hills with fast-moving traffic.
Todd said Academy Hill has been probed for “warrants:” that is, data that would warrant something like the installation of a new stop sign or traffic signal.
(Click here to read the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which Todd referenced to the commission.)
Google Maps
A Google Map showing Academy Hill Road in Derby approaching High Street.
“Right now there really are no warrants that we can find to do anything as far as putting in a three-way stop or anything like that,” Todd said.
An alarmingly high accident rate would be considered a “warrant.” Narowski said the department will take a deeper look at crash data connected to the road.
Rumble strips are an option for the road, if supported by data, police said. Those are cuts in the road that make noise to alert drivers they’re driving off the road or into a wrong lane. The state Department of Transportation installed rumble strips on Roosevelt Drive/Route 34 in west Derby after a series of wrecks there.
But Todd pointed out major design changes are outside the jurisdiction of the police department or the local traffic authority.
“It requires an actual traffic engineer to do a study of the roadway and make recommendations,” Todd said.
Next Steps
If the commission wants a professionally-engineered traffic study, Chief Narowski suggested the police commission reach out to the Naugatuck Valley of Governments for guidance.
“They can put us in touch with the right people,” Narowski said.
Ultimately, Thomas Lenart Sr., the police commission’s chairman, put forward a motion to contact United Illuminating about ways to improve lighting on the road, to fix the road’s warning signal, to go to NVCOG for help with a road study, and to contact the Board of Aldermen/Alderwomen and to potentially ask for money to improve the situation.
“I don’t think this is going to be the be all, end all of the problem,” Lenart said, who encouraged Derby police to keep talking to residents about the problems on the road.
The motion passed unanimously.
