Traffic problem spots run through Cordova

Wherever a traffic accident occurs, there is often more than enough blame to go around.

"In the majority of cases, two people are at fault and it's our job to find out which one was more at fault," said Lt. Phil Rosser of the Memphis Police Department's Traffic Division.

The blame, however, also extends to high-incident intersections, such as four problem spots on Germantown Parkway.Of the 20 Memphis intersections with the highest number of crashes, four are along the Cordova stretch of roadway, according to accident data compiled by police from 2006 through June of this year. More than 1,000 accidents occurred at the intersections of Germantown Parkway at Trinity, Cordova Road, Dexter and U.S. 64 during the 2 1/2 year time period tracked.

Police used the data to determine at which intersections to place red-light cameras.

Each day, 60,000 to 85,000 vehicles travel Germantown Parkway, according to city traffic engineer Richard Merrill. But Merrill does not look to place blame on either the road or drivers.

"We don't look at it in those terms," Merrill said. "We look at it terms of if there's a problem let's see what we can do to fix it."

Widening Germantown Parkway might be a long-term improvement, but would be very expensive and time and labor intensive. The installation of the red-light cameras, which began on Oct. 14 on Germantown Parkway with northbound, southbound and westbound cameras at Germantown and Trinity, is perhaps an immediate way to reduce the number of accidents.

From 1994-2005, New York City's Red Light Camera Program resulted in a 72 percent reduction in red-light violations and a 41 percent decrease in collisions, said Jason Norton, a senior manager with St. Louis-based American Traffic Solutions, the company that Memphis has contracted with for its red-light project.

"We test every direction at an intersection and that determines where a camera is installed," Norton said. "Just because an intersection is dangerous, that doesn't mean you have a red-light problem or a problem from every direction."



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