COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — For the last four years, the intersection between Texas Avenue and Harvey Mitchell has been a hot spot for car accidents — now, the City of College Station has made a change to help fix that.
- The city of College Station is modifying the left turn signal at the intersection between Texas Avenue and Harvey Mitchell Parkway.
- This modification includes removing the flashing yellow light for drivers turning left during 'peak hours'.
- 'Peak Hours" include the time between 7-9 a.m. and 3:30-6 p.m.
- Between 2020 to 2024, there were 92 crashes that occurred at this intersection, with 53 of them involving vehicles making left turns.
- Since this modification was introduced in December, only one crash has occurred in this intersection.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"Cars all day, every day, especially during crunch time here. It's packed, there's lines of cars coming from all directions," College Station resident, Raul Raygoza said.
The city of College Station is modifying the left turn signal at the intersection between Texas Avenue and Harvey Mitchell Parkway.
"Over the last four years, from 2020 to 2024, there were 92 crashes that occurred at this intersection," College Station Senior Traffic Engineer, Randell Smith said.
And out of those crashes, more than 50 of them involved vehicles making left turns.
15ABC asked College Station resident, Jacob Yeskie about his thoughts over the amount of accidents that have occurred at this busy intersection.
"Kind of not not surprised, especially in this town."
"I usually drive around here a lot. There's always lines and lines of cars, especially coming right off at Highway 6 both ways. So, it's usually pretty bad," he said.
College Station now restricts the flashing yellow arrow during peak hours.
"Those are between 7-9 a.m. and 3:30-6 p.m.," Smith said.
In hopes to minimize the amount of crashes in this area.
"At the end of the day, we can't stop human error, but it is our goal to minimize it as much as possible," Smith said.
Raul Raygoza believes our community will benefit from this new safety enhancement.
"Any improvement is better and needed. I hope it works. I'm not sure all the dynamics of the equipment and the technology behind it, but if it's going to improve and stop people from crashing, that's 100% better."
And Jacob Yeskie tells 15ABC this traffic light adjustment is a good start, but the city of College Station shouldn't stop here.
"I think they should do that pretty much any intersection that they have down here, especially. I mean, this isn't the only busy one, so I think they should do it in most of College Station."