Summer is a dangerous time for drivers. Which NC roads should you watch out for?
The summer months are a busy time for travelers, especially for individuals and families who are making trips on roads and highways throughout North Carolina and beyond.
But the period is also a dangerous one for motorists, too.
State transportation officials are warning drivers to be careful behind the wheel as part of the “100 Deadliest Days of Summer” advisory.
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the number of deadly crashes typically rises, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said.
“That’s when we start to see more people out on the roads,” Jen Thompson, communications officer for NCDOT, said. “Because people are taking time off to go on summer vacations with their families, teen drivers are out of school, and they want to get experience behind the wheel as well.”
According to the Charlotte Department of Transportation, the summer months, on average, account for just less than half of all deadly crashes for the year, officials said.
We are entering a very dangerous time to be on the road. The stretch between Memorial & Labor Day is known as the “100 deadliest days of summer” when deadly crashes involving teen drivers spike as school lets out. pic.twitter.com/escm5d5ihC
— CMPD News (@CMPD) May 31, 2023
How hazardous roads are determined
The North Carolina Highway Safety Improvement Program compiles a list of potentially hazardous locations around the state each year.
“Each location listed has a targeted pattern of crashes that can be identified, analyzed, investigated, and recommended for appropriate steps to improve safety where applicable,” Thompson told The Charlotte Observer.
While she says the list isn’t based on the highest number of crashes and doesn’t represent the most dangerous locations in the state, these areas, including streets and highways, are flagged for potentially having more than one safety factor.
“I think ‘dangerous’ means different things to different people. Everyone has a different interpretation of what dangerous is,” Thompson explained. “It’s not just based on one factor, and it’s not just based on the number of crashes.”
These are the 10 highest-ranked areas and intersections in Charlotte in this year’s report:
Carrie Simpson, a safety evaluation engineer with NCDOT, said there are several different factors that contribute to roads that are deemed potentially hazardous, like the type of crash, the severity, and if there’s been an increase in crashes in recent years.
Potentially hazardous intersections
“So if there’s a location that had 50 crashes in the last five years, but 35 of them were in the last year, then that’s going to be a site that we’re going to flag because there’s something going on at that site that’s caused crashes to increase,” Simpson said.
Making Charlotte roads safer
Once the list of potentially hazardous roadways is compiled, Simpson said a group of NCDOT engineers create a crash data package for each location to send out to regional traffic engineers who investigate ways to make the roads safer.
“We’re going to examine data and use that type of approach to determine what’s the best type of treatment if anything,” Thompson said.
She explained that these groups will then submit their proposed projects for approved safety funding.
“Once a safety project has been implemented, a couple of years after it’s been in place, my group will assess the crash data before and after,” Simpson explained. “We’ll come back to see if crashes were mitigated, and if they’re not, then we’ll do something else to improve the location.”
How to stay safe on the road
The Charlotte Department of Transportation urges motorists to drive defensively. The agency advises drivers to slow down, wear seat belts, stay off mobile phones, and never drive impaired.
