Monday, September 15, 2008 9:53 PM CDT
No accidents since Route 45 changes at Lake Land College
By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
hmeeker@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — No traffic accidents have occurred at Lake Land College intersections for months after traffic control changes along U.S. Route 45.
But some fear it might be luck more than the lower speed limit, extra signage and police enforcement by the college entrances.
Lake Land Public Safety Police Chief Randy Ervin said speeding tickets in the 45-mph speed limit zone, warning beacons and lane striping are helping prevent accidents at the college. Last year, a series of accidents at the start of the fall semester helped convince college officials and students to ask Illinois Department of Transportation to make the changes to reduce the accident risks by the north and south intersections of the campus. Several injury accidents had occurred by the college in a three-year period as well.
“I’m not naive enough to think there will never be another accident at those intersections, but we have not had an accident since we started enforcement of the new speed limit,” said Ervin. “People are conscious of the lower speed limit and that has slowed them down.”
Ervin said his officers, who were certified earlier this year for radar speed enforcement, monitor traffic speed and issue tickets when necessary to students or other drivers. Late last year, IDOT officials from the Effingham regional office approved reducing the speed along the state highway from 55 mph to 45 mph, and also added more warning signs and flashing beacons.
But some students last week said more traffic safety measures are needed, like a stoplight and a crackdown on distracted driving habits.
“It gets pretty crazy when you’re trying to get in or out of here,” said Hannah Elliott, an elementary education major from St. Elmo. “And you will see people messing with their books or reaching down on the floorboard. Or they’re talking on the cell phones or texting. People are not paying attention.”
“They need a stoplight out here. Unless people are driving during the high traffic times they don’t know why it is needed,” said Betty McGinnis, an elementary education major from Mattoon. “For about 20 minutes at some times you have both lines touching each other.”
Philip Riley, an Effingham resident studying programming and networking, agrees cell phones are a problem, but added that some drivers need to slow down on campus, not just at the intersections or along the highway.
“They are not staying in their lanes on that curve by the ballfield,” Riley said.
McGinnis said she has not seen officers doing speed checks at any time this semester, but Riley said he has noticed them some days.
McGinnis, Elliott and Riley agreed a stoplight might help reduce the traffic tieups and eliminate the need to thread the needle between highway traffic.
Ervin said it was an IDOT decision to not install a stoplight, based on a traffic study at the college.
“IDOT has been great to work with and they have shown the college they care about safety. You are always going to have people who think a stoplight is needed. If I-57 was a mile or two north of the college then it could work. But with the traffic off the interstate and placing a stoplight at the college you are going to eliminate one problem and create another,” Ervin said.
McGinnis believes accidents are inevitable at Lake Land with the complexity of the traffic pattern. There are private drives across from the college as well as a rural intersection south of the campus.
“On 45, there really is no one stop. You have to keep watching even as you’re turning,”she said.
Contact Herb Meeker at hmeeker@jg-tc.com or 238-6869.
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momof5 wrote on Sep 15, 2008 10:20 PM: