The good news: The number of car crashes in Eugene decreased in recent years. The bad news: The number of crash-related injuries has increased dramatically.
Eugene Public Works announced in an Oct. 30 press release that there were 1,905 recorded crashes in 2006, as compared to the 1,928 reported in 2005. The decreasing number seems to be part of a trend that began after 2004, when the number of crashes spiked to about 2,500, according to City Traffic Engineer Tom Larsen.
“The total number of crashes is definitely trending downward,” said Larsen. “I’m not sure why, though.”
Larsen said crash data in the past 10 years has been fairly arbitrary and without pattern.
“It could be that drivers are being more careful, but I don’t think that’s the case,” said Larsen. “I see more red light-running and bad behavior than ever.”
Crash injury data suggest Larsen isn’t just imagining all that bad behavior. In 2006, 742 of the reported crashes involved injuries, a large increase from 2005’s 620 crash-related injuries.
Larsen couldn’t explain the dramatic jump, but he did notice a pattern in the prevalence of crashes in certain intersections. Crash data released by Eugene Public Works identified 7th Avenue and Washington Street to be the most dangerous intersection in the city, with 46 reported crashes in 2006. The second most dangerous intersection was at River Road and Silver Lane, with 26 crashes reported.
“There’s a pretty good correspondence between the top number of crashes and the intersections with the highest volume of traffic,” said Larsen. “The same intersections keep coming up at the top of the list every year.”
Larsen has also observed that intersections closer to downtown saw more crashes, perhaps because more pedestrians walk downtown and drivers turning left have to wait longer for the intersections to clear.
“You might take more risks as you get more desperate to turn,” said Larsen.
Willamette Street and 18th Avenue had 12 reported crashes in 2006, making it the most dangerous intersection near the University campus. Other dangerous intersections nearby were 11th Avenue and Oak Street and 11th Avenue and Pearl Street, each of which saw eight crashes last year.
Larsen said Eugene’s data is no different from most cities of similar size and population. Salem had a total of 2,216 crashes last year, but Salem has 5,883 more people than Eugene. Springfield, whose population is about one-third the size of Eugene, had 591 crashes last year.
Sylvia Vogel of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Crash Analysis and Reporting Unit said the entire state has experienced a decrease in reported crashes since 2004, and that the trend could be attributed to changing laws. In 2004, the Department of Motor Vehicles instated a law requiring any car crashes resulting in more than $1,500 of damage to be reported. Before 2004, the law required all crashes with more than $1,000 of damage to be reported.
Vogel also said any crashes that result in injuries of any kind are required to be reported to the DMV.
“Even if the injury is one bruise, the DMV has to know about it,” she said.
Larsen said he always hopes for fewer crashes every year, but there isn’t much that Public Works can do to prevent drivers from crashing except maintain signs, roads and stripes.
“Obey the rules of the road, and we’ll all be better off,” said Larsen. “That’s always my main message.”
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