Accident numbers help tell story of intersection
BY ANDREW DAVISON Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD - The Lakewood Police Department has provided accident statistics for the intersection of County Line Road and Route 9.

According to information provided by Lakewood police, 55 accidents occurred at the intersection of County Line Road and Route 9 in 2005; in 2006, 34 accidents occurred at that intersection; and in 2007, 44 accidents occurred at that intersection.

Police said that to this point in 2008, 26 accidents have occurred at that intersection and six of those accidents involved motorists who were making a left turn. Police said there have been 11 rear-end accidents, five were defined as side-swiping accidents, and four accidents were categorized as "other."

Information regarding the severity of the accidents was not provided.

The information is expected to be used as officials consider whether left-turn arrows should be placed on the traffic signal at the intersection of County Line Road and Route 9.

Michael Kaufman, a resident of Jackson, has recently been lobbying municipal and state officials to install turning arrows at the intersection in order to relieve what he said is a difficult location for motorists to navigate.

Kaufman maintains that motorists who are making a left turn (for example, from County Line Road to Route 9 north) face heavy oncoming traffic that makes the maneuver difficult, and that the volume of traffic at the intersection only allows a few motorists to turn left on each green signal.

According to Lakewood Police Sgt. Frank Work, who provided the accident statistics, Section Chief William Beans and Traffic Engineer Kevin Conover of the New Jersey Department of Transportation and Ocean County Engineer Frank Scarantino met at the beginning of the year to discuss potential upgrades to the intersection.

Those talks resulted in a $4 million reconstruction of County Line Road, which was completed on June 26, in response to the increase in traffic volume and subsequent congestion. The project upgraded and re-striped several intersections along County Line Road, including the intersection at Route 9.

Left-turn lanes were added to promote the flow of through traffic and make leftturning motorists more visible to oncoming drivers. Engineers believe this added lane may eliminate the need for the arrow.

However, observation of the effect of these changes will be the determining factor in deciding whether to place the leftturn arrows on the traffic light, officials said.