Geauga County Engineer Joe Cattell said two more stop signs and a red four-way flashing traffic light at Sperry and Fairmount roads in Newbury Township should help resolve the issues at that intersection — at least for a few years.
Geauga County Engineer Joe Cattell said two more stop signs and a red four-way flashing traffic light at Sperry and Fairmount roads in Newbury Township should help resolve the issues at that intersection — at least for a few years.
The stop signs on Sperry were installed Jan. 19 when the overhead flashing signal facing north and south went from yellow to red, he said over the phone Feb. 1.
Newbury Township Trustees and residents voiced their concerns about the safety of the increasingly busy intersection at a trustees meeting last June following an accident there that claimed the lives to two Cuyahoga County men in their 80s and sent a Rome Township woman to the hospital.
Cattell said the intersection has been monitored for a number of years as traffic and accidents have increased, but any intersection needs to meet various criteria in order to rate a multi-way stop.
“The traffic on both roads needs to be fairly balanced,” he said, adding when a traffic count of all four directions shows the flow is pretty equal, one requirement is met.
“Traffic (at Sperry and Fairmount) has started reaching that balance,” he said.
A radar study also indicates what percentage of vehicles is exceeding the speed limit as they approach the intersection, Cattell said.
If it is a 45 mph limit and 85% of vehicles are going faster than that, the area rates more signage to reduce the number of accidents, he said, adding the east-west traffic on Fairmount has increased in the last few years to attain that balance.
“We use every tool we can,” Cattell said.
The county engineer has some discretion as well in making the decision to slow traffic, but a study has to justify the warrant, he said.
Cattell said he hopes the additions to the intersection will make it safer and plans to keep it on the radar.
“Traffic’s a funny thing,” he said, adding typically, when a change in signage is made local, drivers will be very cautious for a few years.
After that, some may become careless about making sure everyone stops fully at the intersection and accidents may go back up, Cattell said.
At the trustees meeting in June, Christopher Yaecker, who lives near the intersection, noted there are reasons the traffic on Fairmount has increased.
“It’s the most dangerous intersection in Newbury. I think a lot of heights (area) people are visiting Holly Hill and confused by the intersection,” he said
Ohman Family Living, an elder care facility that was enlarged over the last few years, is located on Fairmount a few miles east of the intersection.
