INTERSTATE, ROUTE K CROSSING MOST RISKY

About once a week last year, the Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to a motor vehicle accident at Route K and Interstate 55.

That's according to data the department released listing the number of accidents police reported on last year.

Officers responded to 50 accidents at the intersection of Route K and I-55 last year, the highest of any location in the city.

Sgt. Al Moore said the number of accidents at the intersection is easily explained by the amount of traffic in that area. He said many of the accidents occur on the overpass where people are turning onto the interstate ramps.

"People are going to have to pay a lot more attention," he said. "Most of the accidents are on the straight-through, rear end collisions."

Moore said he was surprised the accident numbers weren't higher for that area due to the rapid development and expansion in west Cape Girardeau. He said the traffic situation won't get any better until the intersection is improved.

"In March, they're supposed to close it down to two lanes and begin making it a seven-lane bridge," he said. "They won't open it up again until November."

In addition to accidents on the overpass, Sammie Pounds of Whitewater was figured into the 1994 statistics. He was driving on I-55 beneath the overpass when another car struck his.

"People just don't use their heads sometimes," Pounds said.

He said the other driver attempted to turn around in the median when the crash occurred. No one was seriously injured, although the pregnant driver had her baby that day.

The police department also kept statistics on "serious" accidents, or accidents that result in injury or death.

Cape Girardeau witnessed four fatality accidents in 1994. One of the fatalities was at the intersection that tops the list as the most dangerous, I-55 and North Kingshighway, also known as center junction.

James Hampson III was killed Oct. 26 after colliding with another vehicle at the intersection. Eleven other people were injured at the intersection last year, twice as many as at any other intersection.

Moore said the data the department collects enables city and state engineers to investigate possible hazardous intersections and streets. He said a high number of injury accidents at a site signals engineers that a design flaw might need to be remedied.

"Besides the engineers looking at it," he said, "we also might choose to do more selective enforcement of the speed laws."