PHOTO BY CHRISTINE DAVIS/MID-IOWA ENTERPRISE — The State Center Police Department and the Iowa DOT are considering additional safety measures at the intersection of Highway 30 eastbound and Durham Avenue, pictured, after a recent fatal accident.

STATE CENTER — The Highway 30/Durham Avenue intersection that leads eastbound drivers to Casey’s in State Center has developed an unfortunate reputation as one of the most dangerous crossings in Marshall County, and it came back into the spotlight recently after a fatal accident that claimed the life of 43-year-old Bruce York of Ames.

State Center Police Chief Jon Thomas said that while this is the first fatality crash he has dealt with at the intersection during his tenure, there are usually multiple wrecks per year, and it always involves vehicles attempting to turn left and not seeing oncoming traffic. He estimated that about 3,600 cars travel eastbound on Highway 30 every day, and about 1,400 of those turn north into town.

“We’ve had accidents at 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. It’s not a time of day issue. It’s not really even a weather related issue, and the accidents we have, we haven’t been able to attribute to impairment or even electronic devices,” Thomas said. “This is really, I think, an issue where one of two things is going on. People aren’t taking that pause for the yield sign to really see if cars are coming, or two, they’re in the second car and they see the first car go and they’re making a quick look and they’re missing that 4,000 pound object coming down the road.”

Because of the speeds the vehicles are traveling (it’s a 65 mile per hour zone all the way through State Center), Thomas said collisions usually lead to “a lot” of property damage, but injuries have mostly been minor due to airbags and seatbelts. With all of this information in hand, he recently spoke to Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) officials about potential remedies to the problem, and a few ideas have been thrown out — orange flashing signals that read “turning traffic ahead” or reducing the speed limit to 55 through town like they did in nearby Nevada. Another suggestion was a four-way stop similar to the one in Boone, but Thomas said he didn’t think it would be a good idea.

“Ultimately, it comes down to driver behavior and driver responsibility. People need to slow down. In today’s society, our brains are always going. We’re always thinking about something else, and I think people are just not focusing on clearing that intersection,” he said.

No final determinations have been made, but Thomas expects to have another meeting with the DOT within the next few weeks to further discuss the matter. In the meantime, he plans to continue public education outreach efforts in hopes of raising awareness about the intersection and encouraging safer driving practices.

“With college kids going back to school, the amount of cars going through there is going to increase, and again, that raises our own concerns,” he said.

While he said the flashing yellow lights would serve as “a good warning” and dropping the speed limit “isn’t his preference,” Thomas is also interested in technology that would trigger a sensor, and a light would flash that says “traffic oncoming.” A stop sign at the median at each end of the intersection is also out of the question because it requires 60 feet of median to allow room for semis and other large vehicles, and Durham/Highway 30 only has 50 feet.

“We’ll see what the DOT can do, but they’ve been very responsive and good partners on it,” Thomas said. “My goal is to try and get something done in the next six to eight weeks. As we get ready for football season, we have a large number of vehicles. There’s six home games this year at Iowa State, and that generates a lot of traffic on that Highway 30 corridor. And then kids are going back to school, and we have plenty of kids that come from the Rhodes area and the rural country, and we want to make sure that they get into school safely also.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.