Valley intersections considered more dangerous than combat

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Wallace Greenwood
  • 56th Fighter Wing Safety Office
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Are you safer in Iraq and Afghanistan than in Phoenix?

The number one threat to active duty military personnel is not actual combat, but driving on the roadways here in the area. Each year more Air Force people are killed in Phoenix intersection car accidents than are killed in combat operations.

Phoenix has the dubious honor of being number one in the U.S. for red-light running fatalities. The toll of redlight crashes in Arizona for 2003 was a staggering 5,577 accidents, 49 deaths, 5,553 injuries and 11,908 vehicles damaged.

Last year 22 Thunderbolts were seriously injured in intersection crashes. According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix has had the largest number of red light accidents totaling 2,253 with 23 fatalities. The intersections around Luke are also very dangerous as Glendale had 251 red light accidents with six fatalities and 222 injuries.

Many factors may contribute to intersection accidents, such as good weather that may give a false sense of control; wide, straight streets; high speeds; newcomers who are unfamiliar with the roads; and frequent highway construction that puts people in a hurry on surface streets. The biggest factors are impatience and poor driving habits. People in a hurry don't pay attention -- and they just don't stop.

Countless intersection accidents have been investigated over the past few years by the 56th Fighter Wing Safety office, with several recurring facts emerging from all of them.

First, and contrary to popular belief, the majority of all accidents are avoidable with the application of a little situational awareness. When involved in a collision, the determining factor as to whether someone dies or survives is often more a matter of luck and physics -- how fast the cars were going and at what angle they hit one another. But the majority of these accidents will always involve serious body trauma.

There are several major causes of intersection accidents:

-- Red light running -- people become inattentive and don't pay attention to driving tasks.

-- Failure to yield. Ever see a driver try to beat the traffic and turn left in the face of oncoming traffic? What about seeing a driver make an illegal lane change while turning and ending in a different lane than it began?

-- Speeding up and trying to "beat" the red light. The driver ends up hitting the car in front as that driver anticipated the signal change. As a driver, people need to be aware of the how dangerous it is to hit the accelerator on a yellow light.

There are things drivers can do to help avoid
intersection collisions:

-- Maintain a steady speed through intersections. Look each way before entering the intersection. Watch out for drivers trying to beat the signal change.

-- Obey right of way rules. The most important thing to remember is the right of way does not exist until someone gives it -- it's not something a driver automatically has.

Traffic safety experts are working to design safer intersections to solve this problem. In combat, one always takes precautions to defend oneself. On the roadway, that means being a defensive driver and watching out for the other guy, especially at intersections.