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STEPHEN HEGARTYAccidents are up, and some road "improvements" seem to make sticky driving situations worse. A reduction in overall injuries and fatalities is the bright spot as population growth takes its toll.
U.S. 19 remains Pasco County's most dangerous highway, with more fatalities and fender benders than any other road in the county.
But a handful of congested areas in central Pasco and fast-growing Trinity have crept up on the list of the county's worst spots for traffic mayhem.
"It's wherever you have growth and lots of cars," said Bob Reck, Pasco's traffic operations manager.
"U.S. 19 has always had a bunch (of intersections) at the top of the list," Reck said. "But you see other areas of the county moving near the top of the list. That's where the cars are."
Two of the worst hot spots are State Roads 54 and 52, especially near Interstate 75. For the past three years, more accidents have happened near those intersections than at any other.
The traffic accident information is in a newly released publication, Pasco County 2003 Traffic Crash Facts (www.pascocountyfl.net) The report has a small target audience of transportation officials. But in the endless stream of numbers, a picture emerges of a county where traffic is thick, roads remain dangerous and road improvements seem to only encourage more traffic.
According to the report, the biggest change is near Trinity in southwest Pasco. The area around SR 54 and Little Road suddenly has become one of the most dangerous in the county. That intersection and the area around it was ranked 18th worst in the county in 2001 and 15th in 2002. Suddenly in 2003 it shot up near the top of the list, ranking as Pasco's third worst area for accidents.
"It's getting so that intersection is jammed every day," said Arthur Trifilio, 80, who lives in nearby Fairway Springs. "It used to be a quiet road, like the country. But now the Trinity area has really ballooned, and you have all those new stores.
"Any time you put that many cars on the road," Trifilio said, "you're bound to have people who stop a foot too long and cause a wreck."
Trifilio recently was involved a wreck that added to that intersection's notoriety.
Mid afternoon on April 17, Trifilio and his wife, Cecelia, were headed to an early buffet dinner.
As usual, they had to stop at the traffic signal at SR 54 and Little Road. Trifilio recalled later that he and his wife were looking straight ahead. Who thinks to look in their rearview mirror when they're stuck in traffic?
Suddenly a heavy truck behind them failed to stop at the traffic signal and smashed into several cars.
The crash was hardly typical. It turned out to be the kind of collision that really boosts the county's traffic accident statistics: a nine-car pileup, with four people, including the Trifilios, taken to area hospitals.
"Every day when we pull out into traffic, we remark on how busy it is and how dangerous it is," Trifilio said.
The sheer volume of traffic along SR 54 and SR 52 and on I-75 in the Wesley Chapel area translates to a high accident rate. Even with planned improvements - such as the $22-million project at SR 54 and I-75 - traffic in those areas promises to be thick for years to come.
Some concerned homeowners, such as Dennis Smith of Wesley Chapel, warn that, given the rate of growth, the area could have more dangerous hot spots soon. Smith serves on Pasco's Planning Commission and routinely studies traffic issues in the area. He said he expects the new SR 56 near I-75 will be a mess of congestion once the proposed regional mall opens.
"You want to know what that's going to look like? Look at the traffic out in Brandon," Smith said.
Reck, of the county's traffic division, saw a couple of promising signs in Pasco's latest accident statistics. While the number of accidents is up - from 7,278 in 2002 to 7,848 in 2003 - the numbers of injuries decreased by nearly 1,000. That could be a function of increased volume of traffic. With more cars on the road, traffic jams cause drivers to slow down. So there are more fender benders, but fewer high-speed crashes.
The number of fatalities dropped as well.
In 2001, Pasco had its highest number of traffic fatalities ever: 105 deaths. In 2002, that number dropped to 96. It fell again to 84 in 2003. That's roughly the same number as in 1999 and 2000, when there were fewer cars on the roads.
The greatest number of traffic fatalities was on U.S. 19, the site of 15 deaths. Nine of those deaths on U.S. 19 were pedestrians who died on the north/south thoroughfare, which historically has had an alarmingly high number.
In 2002, Pasco earned some of the wrong kind of national attention when the 20-mile stretch of U.S. 19 that runs through the county was rated the deadliest road in the nation for pedestrians.
Due to the congestion and the number of traffic fatalities, U.S. 19 has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. The county has committed more than $13-million to build "channelized" medians along the entire length of the highway to allow turns only in a single direction - a project designed with safety in mind. That was one of the arguments for the Penny for Pasco initiative that passed in March - that the money was needed for road safety improvements on the dangerous U.S. 19.
I-75 had seven fatalities in 2003. Three roads had four traffic deaths in 2003, including SR 52, SR 54, and Little Road. Each of those roads is among Pasco's most traveled.
Reck cited two possible reasons for the reduction in fatalities: more safety features in new cars and more road improvements with safety in mind. Oddly, it appears that some road improvements, such as road widenings, don't necessarily result in fewer accidents.
"Sometimes it just fits more cars on the road," Reck said.