Here are Reading's most dangerous intersections

Oct. 25—City Council has learned how dangerous intersections in Reading actually are.

Council demanded the city take action to address dangerous intersections after an 8-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were hospitalized in April when they were struck by a three-wheeled motorcycle at 18th Street and Perkiomen Avenue.

Council compiled a list of intersections and submitted them to Mayor Eddie Moran's administration. That list included Second and Buttonwood streets, and the intersection of Lancaster Avenue, Route 10 and the ramps from Route 422.

Over the past several months the Reading Police Department conducted an informal traffic study of the city's intersections and other spots that are crash-prone, compiling a list based on total traffic crashes at specified intersections or by geographical area.

Last week, Police Chief Richard Tornielli presented the study, which looked at 5,425 traffic accidents from January 2020 through July 31, 2021.

The results were somewhat surprising.

"Most vehicle crashes in the city occur at intersections with traffic control devices, which is surprising," Tornielli said. "The largest things we are seeing is speeding, those sight lines being disrupted by parking and just a disregard for traffic control devices."

Tornielli also discovered there were 136 pedestrian crashes during the timeframe studied.

"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. "I thought we would have had a lot more from my experience being on the street, but still 136 is 136 too many."

Most of the pedestrian accidents occurred along Penn Street, Tornielli said.

"There are a lot of traffic controls," he said. "A lot of those intersections have timed pedestrian traffic periods."

One of the more shocking discoveries was the intersection in the city with the most accidents — Lancaster Avenue, Route 10 and the ramps from Route 422 — has a traffic signal.

Third and Penn streets has the next highest number of crashes in the city, Tornielli said.

There were 43 non-injury accidents at that intersection during the study.

"It's an intersection controlled by traffic devices in all four directions so we're seeing slower-speed accidents there," Tornielli said.

Tornielli did note the data he presented did not include Route 10.

"We know the majority of the crashes along that road are the results of those intersections not being controlled," he said.

Other locations in the study and the chief's recommendations:

North Eighth Street

"This is the drag racing strip in the northeast," Tornielli said of North Eighth Street.

There were 82 crashes on that stretch of road and that was significantly higher than anywhere else in the city, Tornielli said.

"That is a very high number for us to see in a few block area," he said.

Nine of the crashes were injury accidents and 73 were non-injury accidents, Tornielli said.

"A lot of this comes down to those poor sightlines and speeding," he said. "This is another area we should look at doing a formal traffic study."

North Fifth Street

The North Fifth Street intersections with Oley Street and Douglass Street saw four injury crashes and 17 noninjury crashes, Tornielli said.

The reason is because Fifth Street has no traffic controls between those intersections so it leads to higher speeds, Tornielli said.

The intersection with Spring Street had 13 noninjury accidents, but was not among the most dangerous, Torneilli said.

"We're seeing slower-speed accidents here," he said. "Folks turning out in front of cars or trying to get to the traffic light."

Kenhorst Boulevard

This street was one of the more significant areas in the city and had 27 crashes including four injury accidents, Tornielli said.

"These are all intersections that are not fully controlled," Tornielli said. "It's a long open roadway. We do see some speeding there and see some vehicles pulling out from a stop sign without making sure there is proper clearance."

Schuylkill Avenue

Schuylkill Avenue and Lackawanna Street was the intersection that had the highest number of crashes on the avenue, Tornielli said, calling it an anomaly. There were five crashes in that area.

"That intersection is fully controlled and has left-turn signals," he said. "I think a lot of that is people trying to beat the traffic lights or make a right turn on the red."

Schuylkill Avenue at Avenue B did not have a lot of vehicle crashes — only four during the study — but there were a high number of pedestrian crashes, Tornielli said.

"We believe a lot of that is attributed to the folks leaving the Glenside Homes and going across Schuylkill Avenue to the businesses there," he said.

Tornielli's report showed there were five pedestrian crashes at that intersection.

Tornielli suggested that eliminating the left turn from Avenue B onto Schuylkill Avenue.

"It will make it much safer for individuals crossing Schuylkill Avenue," he said.

There were five pedestrian accidents in the Glenside neighborhood, Tornielli said.

"When we see most of the blocks in the city have zero, five in a small area is significant," he said.

Councilwoman Donna Reed worried about eliminating the left turn.

"Would it be more problematic to prohibit any kind of left-hand turns there?" Reed asked. "Avenue A and Avenue B are the only points of entrance and egress to the Glenside Homes."

Tornielli agreed and said Avenue B is really the only exit.

"It would create a problem that all the traffic would have to turn right and it would have to go somewhere to turn around and go southbound into the city," he said. "Which is why I don't think left turns were prohibited before, but from what we're seeing is there is a compelling argument why we should do that."

The intersections at West Windsor, West Douglass and Mercer streets have parking issues and stop sign violations that contribute to crashes at those locations, Tornielli said.

Museum Road

There were only five crashes on Museum road at east Wyomissing Road and Old Wyomissing Road during the reporting period, Tornielli said.

There is no easy solution to fixing those, he said.

The line of sight issues with traffic coming down the hill into the city prevents the city from installing any type of traffic control devices at that intersection, Tornielli said.

To fix the problem, the chief said, the police department could do additional enforcement in that area.

Lancaster Avenue

Police have noticed the same issues on Lancaster Avenue that Kenhorst Boulevard experiences: speeding and lack of traffic control.

"One of the things I would like kicked to PennDOT is Lancaster Avenue to check on the traffic timing," Tornielli said. "A lot of the accidents we see on Lancaster Avenue are rear-ending accidents from vehicles getting stuck in traffic."

Laurel Street

The shocking statistic from the department's study was a majority of crashes on Laurel Street happened at intersections with traffic lights or stop signs, Tornielli said.

"It's individuals who are jumping traffic signals or rolling through stop signs," he said. "We also noted there are line-of-sight issues down the half streets."

Perkiomen Avenue and Mineral Spring Road

Many of the crashes on Perkiomen Avenue and Mineral Spring Road happened at controlled intersections, Tornielli said.

"Where's there a lot of different traffic patterns converging in one location is where we saw a large number of crashes," Tornielli said.

There were 12 crashes at the Perkiomen Avenue, Hill Street and Franklin Street intersection; 10 at Mineral Spring Road, Clymer Street and Spruce Street; and eight at 11th Street, Perkiomen Avenue and Penn Street.

"We saw 30 crashes at those three locations, which is pretty high," Tornielli said.

The police department will increase enforcement in those areas to try and decrease the number of crashes, he said.

Northeast streets

The police studied Ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th streets from Walnut to Spring streets together and found the issues were common.

"There is a very high volume of traffic and it is densely populated, so there is a lot of parking issues in those neighborhoods," Torneilli said. "We're seeing a lot of parking violations in those neighborhoods.

"These are probably the most significant areas where those sightlines cause a lot of issues for folks pulling out from those four-way stop signs."

Tornielli believes the only thing to solve the problem at those intersections is to step up enforcement.

Hampden Boulevard

Torneilli did not have much to say about Hampden Boulevard, except that speeding is a problem.

"It's an open roadway with no controls on it," he said. "Unless we are out there doing enforcement every day, the only other thing we can look at is physically changing the roadway."

Front, Amity and Pike streets and Centre Avenue

"A lot of traffic issues on Centre Avenue are when school is coming in and out," Torneilli said. "Again, another roadway that has a lack of controls for the length of the roadway."

Sixth Street from Amity to Pike streets

This area also saw a significant amount of crashes during the studied period. Tornielli reported 20 crashes due to poor sight lines from parking issues.

Second and Buttonwood streets

There were not many crashes reported in the area, only two noninjury accidents, Tornielli said.

However, every time the chief has driven through the area, he notices a lot of pedestrians.

"We may want to do some simple things like putting up those pedestrian signs in the roadway," Tornielli said.

Fourth and Cherry Streets

The city already is engaged in a formal traffic study for this intersection.

"There have been a lot of serious accidents there," Tornielli said.

The police department recorded four injury-accidents and 15 noninjury accidents during its study.

"It's simply a lack of traffic control," Tornielli said.

Franklin Street

Tornielli studied all of Franklin Street and said there were not many crashes.

He found there is an average of less than one crash per month and most of the crashes occurred at intersections with traffic control devices.