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State puts stoplight at deadly school intersection
By Molly Salisbury
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
A stoplight is being installed at Routes 23 and 11A, an intersection near the Taconic Hills Central School District many people consider dangerous. Concrete fittings have been poured and work started there last October. But the work stopped, pending further analysis and many emails and meetings later, the stoplight is finally going up.
According to Robert Garon, former president of the Taconic Hills Board of Education, there have been eight accidents at the intersection since the school opened in 1999. His daughter, Renee, a Junior at the time, was in an accident there in November, 2005 and still suffers neck pain, he said. Garon has been on a mission since then to get the stoplight.
The state Department of Transportation was contacted for accident reports, which were not available by press deadline for this article.
Renee Garon was waiting at the end of the traffic queue on 11A to make a left turn onto Route 23 when a car pulling out of the school parking lot was going too quickly and hit her. According to Robert Garon, three cars were totaled. “There have been a lot of rear-end accidents,” he said. “Traffic backs up, then traffic inches forward, then boom. A traffic light will work as a visual aid and you won't get the build-up of traffic.”
Columbia County Public Works Commissioner David Robinson has been aware of the dangerous intersection since before 1999. Long before the school opened there was an accident with multiple fatalities there, but since then, no accidents have made the public works department's radar, he said. The subsequent accidents were “fender-benders,” he said. And fender-benders aren't big deals in the world of traffic engineers.
Robinson has been advocating for turn lanes since 2005, when he first received a letter from former Superintendent of Schools David Paciencia. The request for a stoplight at that time seemed to Robinson that Taconic Hills was “playing engineer,” and that “a lay person would perceive a light would stop all ills at the intersection.”
In a Sept. 25 letter to the Register-Star, Garon wrote: “ I for one want to put Columbia County on notice that they are playing with peoples lives and have opened the county up for a huge lawsuit because they know that this intersection is dangerous and becoming more dangerous by the day.
“I spoke to Ms. Joan DuPont, NYSDOT regional director, and she confirmed that there is a hold up due to CCDOT (County Public Works Commissioner David Robinson) balking at the placement of the traffic light at this intersection.”
To this accusation, Robinson responded, “He gives me far too much credit.”
The intersection uses stop signs, and Commissioner Robinson said the stop signs are doing their job just fine. But he isn't “against” a stoplight — Robinson expressed frustration with the way the state DOT has handled the process. For him, “It boils down to proper protocol,” and this is where, Robinson said, “the NYSDOT fell down.”
In an Oct. 7 letter Robinson received from Joan Dupont, regional director of the DOT, Dupont ended the years-long back and forth and wrote, “After reviewing extensive information from NYSDOT staff, from you and the school district, I have decided that NYSDOT will proceed with installation of the signal at the intersection of (State Route) 23 and (County Route) 11A.
“Ultimately liability issues became the deciding factor.”
Apparently the first Taconic Hills superintendent, John Oates, requested a stoplight from DOT a decade ago and was flatly refused. They compromised on the flashing school zone lights, and lowered the speed limit on Route 23 parallel to the school, intersecting Route 11A.
Then in November of 2005 Superintendent Paciencia wrote letters to Senator Saland, Robinson and the DOT, requesting a stoplight and describing another rear-end accident at Rts 23 and 11A that occurred the morning he wrote the letter. “Before another accident occurs which might involve a large number of children, I am requesting that you please permit a traffic control light to be installed at this increasingly dangerous intersection,” he wrote.
Robinson answered, “The final decision for a traffic signal lies with the NYSDOT.” He also noted that a traffic study would need to be done to assess the situation.
The next Robinson heard about the issue was in June, 2007. He received a note from a group at DOT, which was designing a traffic light for the intersection, and was asking Columbia County's permission. Robinson responded that, in fact, DOT didn't need permission, as the county did not have jurisdiction. But Robinson was miffed. He thought his office should have been involved in the decision — specifically, he thought there should be a traffic study.
Then work started last October. Robinson contacted the DOT to find out why he wasn't notified. In November of 2008, then DOT officials came to Columbia County and met with him, apologized for not contacting him for input and agreed to work with the county and perform a traffic study. This essentially halted the installation.
Robinson explains his reluctance to accept the stoplight by pointing to the statistics. “Traffic lights increase rear-end collisions.” Robinson still thinks that instead of a stoplight, what's needed are turn lanes. “DOT should have evaluated the benefit of turn lanes before deciding on a signal light.”
No work or analysis was actually done during the time span between halting the stoplight work and starting again this month. But turn lanes are more expensive than a stoplight — and a stoplight cost about $100,000. In Robinson's opinion politics has trumped science — a decision was reached without due diligence. But in Garon's opinion, the right thing has finally been done.
According to Robert Garon, former president of the Taconic Hills Board of Education, there have been eight accidents at the intersection since the school opened in 1999. His daughter, Renee, a Junior at the time, was in an accident there in November, 2005 and still suffers neck pain, he said. Garon has been on a mission since then to get the stoplight.
The state Department of Transportation was contacted for accident reports, which were not available by press deadline for this article.
Renee Garon was waiting at the end of the traffic queue on 11A to make a left turn onto Route 23 when a car pulling out of the school parking lot was going too quickly and hit her. According to Robert Garon, three cars were totaled. “There have been a lot of rear-end accidents,” he said. “Traffic backs up, then traffic inches forward, then boom. A traffic light will work as a visual aid and you won't get the build-up of traffic.”
Columbia County Public Works Commissioner David Robinson has been aware of the dangerous intersection since before 1999. Long before the school opened there was an accident with multiple fatalities there, but since then, no accidents have made the public works department's radar, he said. The subsequent accidents were “fender-benders,” he said. And fender-benders aren't big deals in the world of traffic engineers.
Robinson has been advocating for turn lanes since 2005, when he first received a letter from former Superintendent of Schools David Paciencia. The request for a stoplight at that time seemed to Robinson that Taconic Hills was “playing engineer,” and that “a lay person would perceive a light would stop all ills at the intersection.”
In a Sept. 25 letter to the Register-Star, Garon wrote: “ I for one want to put Columbia County on notice that they are playing with peoples lives and have opened the county up for a huge lawsuit because they know that this intersection is dangerous and becoming more dangerous by the day.
“I spoke to Ms. Joan DuPont, NYSDOT regional director, and she confirmed that there is a hold up due to CCDOT (County Public Works Commissioner David Robinson) balking at the placement of the traffic light at this intersection.”
To this accusation, Robinson responded, “He gives me far too much credit.”
The intersection uses stop signs, and Commissioner Robinson said the stop signs are doing their job just fine. But he isn't “against” a stoplight — Robinson expressed frustration with the way the state DOT has handled the process. For him, “It boils down to proper protocol,” and this is where, Robinson said, “the NYSDOT fell down.”
In an Oct. 7 letter Robinson received from Joan Dupont, regional director of the DOT, Dupont ended the years-long back and forth and wrote, “After reviewing extensive information from NYSDOT staff, from you and the school district, I have decided that NYSDOT will proceed with installation of the signal at the intersection of (State Route) 23 and (County Route) 11A.
“Ultimately liability issues became the deciding factor.”
Apparently the first Taconic Hills superintendent, John Oates, requested a stoplight from DOT a decade ago and was flatly refused. They compromised on the flashing school zone lights, and lowered the speed limit on Route 23 parallel to the school, intersecting Route 11A.
Then in November of 2005 Superintendent Paciencia wrote letters to Senator Saland, Robinson and the DOT, requesting a stoplight and describing another rear-end accident at Rts 23 and 11A that occurred the morning he wrote the letter. “Before another accident occurs which might involve a large number of children, I am requesting that you please permit a traffic control light to be installed at this increasingly dangerous intersection,” he wrote.
Robinson answered, “The final decision for a traffic signal lies with the NYSDOT.” He also noted that a traffic study would need to be done to assess the situation.
The next Robinson heard about the issue was in June, 2007. He received a note from a group at DOT, which was designing a traffic light for the intersection, and was asking Columbia County's permission. Robinson responded that, in fact, DOT didn't need permission, as the county did not have jurisdiction. But Robinson was miffed. He thought his office should have been involved in the decision — specifically, he thought there should be a traffic study.
Then work started last October. Robinson contacted the DOT to find out why he wasn't notified. In November of 2008, then DOT officials came to Columbia County and met with him, apologized for not contacting him for input and agreed to work with the county and perform a traffic study. This essentially halted the installation.
Robinson explains his reluctance to accept the stoplight by pointing to the statistics. “Traffic lights increase rear-end collisions.” Robinson still thinks that instead of a stoplight, what's needed are turn lanes. “DOT should have evaluated the benefit of turn lanes before deciding on a signal light.”
No work or analysis was actually done during the time span between halting the stoplight work and starting again this month. But turn lanes are more expensive than a stoplight — and a stoplight cost about $100,000. In Robinson's opinion politics has trumped science — a decision was reached without due diligence. But in Garon's opinion, the right thing has finally been done.
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