ROAD BLOCKS: DEXPITE MORE TRAFFIC CITATIONS, ACCIDENTS ARE UP IN CITY THIS YEAR

Cape Girardeau police try a variety of tricks to get drivers to pay attention on the road.

This is the year of the ticket.

With more officers in the traffic division the first half of this year compared to last year, citations have increased by nearly 1,000.

Between Jan. 1 and July 10 last year, police wrote 3,152 tickets, of which 1,291 were for speeding. For the same period this year, they wrote 4,443 tickets, and speeding citations increased to 1,810.

While police sought out violators with a goal of cutting down on accidents, the numbers show it didn't work. Police responded to 955 vehicle accidents in approximately the first six months last year compared to 965 this year.

Give it time, Cpl. Kevin Eudy said. It will work.

"A lot of this takes place by word of mouth," said Eudy, one of the department's accident specialists. "One way or another, we're either going to change driving habits or get bad drivers off the street."

Pizza delivery driver Chad Moore has noticed more police cruisers on the streets in the past two months. But that hasn't changed his driving, and police haven't pulled him over, he said.

"I drive the same way all the time, about five miles over the limit," he said. "I figure if I stay in that vicinity, I feel I won't get ticketed."

With officer resignations and the division's sergeant out of the office for training, three fewer officers worked traffic enforcement assignments for several months last year, said Sgt. Jack Wimp, who is in charge of the traffic division.

The traffic division should have a sergeant, corporal, three crash investigators, two traffic- enforcement officers and a parking citations officer. This year the division is only one officer short, Wimp said.

Continuing problems

Regardless of the number of officers, some roadways continue to be problematic year after year.

The portion of Kingshighway from Lexington Avenue to Kurre Lane and several yards of Mount Auburn Road just north of its intersection with William Street are the high-accident locations for the first half of this year. Both sections of road have 15 wrecks apiece.

Vehicle crashes on the section of Mount Auburn Road have increased compared to the first six months of last year, when 10 accidents occurred on Mount Auburn between William Street and Gordonville Road.

Over time, traffic movement at that point of Mount Auburn Road should be better since an additional turn lane into the corner Burger King was added, Eudy said.

When adjustments in road design aren't feasible, police try to educate drivers, he said, since most crashes can be traced back to drivers' errors.

Not everyone gets the message, said S. Michael Peterson, a police accident investigator. An electronic message board placed near the intersection of William Street and Mount Auburn Road last year seemed ironic at times, he said.

"Here we have this message telling drivers this is a dangerous intersection, and we're right there in front of the sign working accidents," Peterson said.

Tailgating troubles

This year more than half of the time, tailgating, failure to yield or inattention have been the probable causes of accidents, police say.

Almost 25 percent involve vehicles being hit from the rear, Eudy said.

Police say the most common sequence of events involves a car following another into a right-turn lane. Then as the car in front inches forward, the driver behind looks to the left and starts pulling ahead, not noticing the car in front has stopped.

Another common cause of wrecks is inappropriate courtesy, Eudy said. A driver stopped in traffic will notice another driver who wants to make a left turn, so the first driver waves him ahead. The problem often is neither driver is thinking about other cars.

This is a problem around the roadways leading up to the intersection of Independence Street and Kingshighway. In the past, officers have attempted to hand out flyers to shoppers in the area to make them more conscious of their driving as they pull out of the parking lots, Eudy said.

Making drivers aware of police presence is another method of influencing better driving behavior, although Peterson wonders how well it works.

After receiving a report of an accident with injuries near Sprigg and Morgan Oak streets, he flipped on his lights and siren before making a U-turn on William Street near Silver Springs Road. As he drove about 10 miles above the speed limit, he had to slow down as one driver in the right-hand lane failed to notice the patrol car for several seconds.

"You can hear the fire department sirens for blocks and blocks," Peterson said. "A lot of times, people just don't hear ours."

DANGEROUS INTERSECTIONS

The worst intersections in Cape Girardeau based on the number of accidents this year:

15 Kingshighway, from Lexington Ave. to Kurre Lane

15 Mt. Auburn Rd. from Gordonville Rd. to William St.

12 Interstate 55, from Nash Rd. to Highway 74

12 Kingshighway, at the Interstate 55 interchange

11 Interstate 55, from William St. to Hopper Rd.

11 Independence St., from Clark Ave. to Kingshighway

11 Kingshighway, from Broadway to Cape Rock Dr.

10 Broadway, from Kingshighway to Walker Ave.

High citation areas

Locations where police have issued the most citations in 2001:

* William Street at Sheridan Drive - 126 citations

* Kingshighway at Southern Expressway - 107

* Highway 74 at Minnesota Avenue - 105

* Hopper Road at Hawthorne Road - 101

* Kingshighway at Marsha Kay Drive - 93