Springfield police to look at intersection after neighbor complaints

Police will use a speed trailer to study a Springfield intersection after residents have complained of speeders.

Drivers often ignore speed limit signs at North Greenmount Avenue and Warder Street, neighbor Gretchen Graham said, causing crashes.

“There have been at least six accidents that I know of … People take the extra 5, sometimes 10 miles per hour and go flying down that street,” Graham said.

But, she said, many of the crashes go unreported to police.

The Springfield Police Division responded to only one crash at that intersection in 2015, Sgt. Brett Bauer said.

“If we’re not called then we don’t respond and there’s no record of the event,” Bauer said.

Graham submitted a petition with signatures from about 30 neighbors to the city engineer last year, she said, requesting a four-way stop be put in at the intersection. She didn’t hear back about the petition, she said.

The city looked at the intersection, Springfield Engineer Leo Shanayda said, and found that the number of accidents didn’t warrant a four-way stop sign.

Neighbors should report crashes they see to police, Bauer said.

“It’s always possible that if there are more accidents at that crash scene that we’re going to take a harder look at it,” Bauer said. “Anybody who sees an accident is welcome to call and we enjoy having a witness or two.”

The intersection is on a waiting list to be studied by Springfield police’s speed trailer, he said, after neighbors requested it about a year ago.

“We had a period of two years where we did not have a speed trailer that we could use,” he said. “So that waiting list just grew and grew.”

The speed trailer collects speed data from drivers and has a sign that flashes at them to let them know how fast they’re going.

“It’s educational,” Bauer said. “People see it, they see their speed and they think, “I’m going too fast,” and they back down.”

The intersection of North Greenmount Avenue and Warder Street is high on that waiting list, he said, and the speed trailer will probably be out at that location in about five to six weeks.

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