Middletown-WTNH, Mar. 23, 2006.

by News Channel 8's Jodi Latina

 There are surprising results from a road safety study aimed at preventing head-on collisions. Widening travel lanes and shoulders on two-lane roads would appear to make driving safer. But, a new UConn study says it actually makes driving more dangerous.

 The UConn study includes five years of data from more than 700 roads. Researchers say 75 percent of fatal crashes across the country occur on two-lane roads. But widening the road, they say, may not be the answer. Two lane roads like Route 66 in Middletown are no longer backcountry routes. In many towns they're considered major thoroughfares, and tragically, these roads have become the scene of a number of head-on collisions. "I've been a truck driver for 50 years. There's a lot of crazy people out there, believe me," says Charle Berndt.

But instead of widening the road, a UConn researcher suggests doing something else. The UConn study found widening the shoulder on a two-lane road more than six feet is not safe. They say it gives drivers a false sense of security and they speed up. One commuter who spoke with News Channel 8 agrees and has noticed a change on Route 66 since it's been widened. "I travel it every day and I noticed people are going a lot faster than they used to because there are more lanes," says Richard Linsley. Instead of expanding the roadway the author of the UConn study offers these solutions: add a rumble strip to the center line; use median dividers; add passing lanes. "When I was traveling a lot, those rumble strips were very affective," says Pam Coleman. But not everyone agrees with the study. A state Department of Transportation spokesperson says it's not the road design that causes accidents on Connecticut's two-lane roads, but rather driver error.

Citation for this study: THE EFFECT OF SEGMENT CHARACTERISTICS ON THE SEVERITY OF HEAD-ON CRASHES ON TWO-LANE RURAL HIGHWAYS, by John N. Ivan, Per E. Garder, Zuxuan Deng, Chen Zhang

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, REGION I UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION CENTER, PROJECT UCNR15-5, FINAL REPORT. January 5, 2006. Performed by University of Connecticut Connecticut Transportation Institute, Storrs, CT 06269. And University of Maine Department of Civil Engineering, Orono, ME 04469

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