SR supervisors, PennDOT brainstorm intersection safety
SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — Township supervisors met with PennDOT representatives in early May to brainstorm strategies to make the intersection of Branchton Road and Route 8 safer.
The four-way intersection was the site of three vehicle crashes, one of them fatal, during the month of April.
At the monthly township meeting Monday, Supervisor Paul Dickey announced that he, Supervisor Terry Doerr and road foreman Randy Long met with PennDOT representatives May 10 at the intersection site to discuss decreasing the risk of accidents.
“They thought of doing something in the relatively near future,” Dickey said. “I’m not sure what all they had in mind.”
The intersection currently uses a blinking yellow light to regulate traffic.
He added that signage, early warning traffic signs and improving sight lines were among the ideas presented. The hope is to implement a solution in the coming months.
According to previous reports, the blinker light was installed shortly after a 2003 crash where a North Carolina family of five was killed when a truck driver ignored a stop sign and hit the family’s vehicle.
Following the incident, supervisors had several meetings regarding the intersection into 2004, with many residents in attendance. Out of concern for the community’s safety, 660 residents signed a petition for a traffic light to be installed.
PennDOT representatives investigated possible intersection improvements and installed the blinker light in January 2004, despite their evaluation saying that a light was unnecessary.
A traffic light was not installed due to high cost, according to a previous Butler Eagle article.
Most recently, a local woman was killed at the intersection after her vehicle hit an oncoming log truck on the morning of April 6. Another accident was reported with one injury three weeks later in the same location.
