Glendale Hts. intersections lead infamous list Army Trail-Bloomingdale crossroads produces 100 accidents in 1994.(News)

Drive carefully!

The most dangerous intersections in DuPage County are:

Intersection No. of accidents*
Army Trail and Bloomingdale roads 100
Army Trail and Glen Ellyn roads 95
Schmale Road and North Avenue 87
75th Street and Woodward Avenue 83
Glen Ellyn Road and North Avenue 83
*1994 figures, most recent available
Source: DuPage County Division of Transportation

The most likely place in DuPage County to get rear-ended, sideswiped or otherwise fender-bendered is at Army Trail and Bloomingdale roads. The Glendale Heights intersection is the county's worst, with 100 accidents in 1994. Close behind was another intersection along Army Trail. That was at Glen Ellyn Road, where 95 collisions were recorded in 1994, the most recent year for which complete county statistics are available. Transportation officials believe that is a temporary blip, however, because other years have shown far fewer collisions.

Other intersections with more than 80 crashes a year include two along North Avenue - at Schmale and Glen Ellyn roads - and at 75th and Woodward avenues in Woodridge. All but one of the intersections are in or on the edge of Glendale Heights.
"It's a combination of the volume of traffic, obviously ... and the number of commercial entrances," said Chuck Tokarski, DuPage County's director of transportation. He said planners are careful when interpreting accident statistics. It is usually more realistic to use three year's worth of numbers before determining what safety improvements can be made, he said.

"It's a good starting point," Tokarski says.

An example: Nearly half of the crashes at Army Trail and Bloomingdale roads involved people backing out of their driveways near the intersection. They didn't actually occur in the middle of the intersection. Still, such statistics tell planners that improvements such as medians along the four-lane roads will probably reduce collisions by preventing motorists from crossing so many lanes of traffic. The county's transportation division also plans to widen Army Trail to six lanes near Bloomingdale Road, Tokarski says.

As for state highways, the worst intersections in DuPage are along the same stretch of road.One is at Naper Boulevard and Ogden Avenue in Naperville, which had 64 collisions in 1995, according to state highway statistics. The other was farther north, at Naperville and Butterfield roads in Wheaton, which logged 62 crashes, according to the state. Naper Boulevard turns into Naperville Road near the East-West Tollway.

The high number of collisions is partly due to the high volume of traffic at both intersections. But officials say it's not always easy to improve the safety of developed intersections, especially if the roads already are four lanes wide and have signalized turning lanes. "There may not be anything that can be done about it," said Rick Meyers, chief of the accident records section for the Illinois Department of Transportation. Wheaton Police Cmdr. Joe Eversole said it's no surprise that Butterfield and Naperville roads made the list."It's always historically been our worst intersection," he said.

That is because of proximity to the ramps for the East-West tollway and to the bustling Danada commercial center. But Eversole said the city doesn't record as many crashes as it used to, thanks to turning lanes with signals. And most of the accidents now result from rear-end collisions, he said, rather than a failure to yield to oncoming traffic.