The Tippecanoe County Area Plan Commission (APC) is analyzing crash data in order to make safety improvements.
Executive Director Sallie Fahey says her staff collects and categorizes the information every year, but this year’s effort will lead to spending federal highway funds. Specifically, the APC is compiling a list of crashes with fatalities.
Fahey says if any of those were caused by a possible design flaw, they want to correct it.
"A fatality is going to rank a location higher, but if underlying that, the crash or fatality occurred for a reason other than the road or intersection design, then there isn't much we can do about it from a project perspective."
Tippecanoe County receives about $500,000 a year in federal highway safety improvement money. However, Fahey says they have not spent several years’ worth of funds; because the state is slow in getting out guidelines on how the dollars may be used. She says the money must be spent in the next 16 months.
"Whether it's a roundabout or a pedestrian improvement, so we are looking for a visible project that we can accomplish in that timeframe and use the money wisely."
Doug Poad is the transportation senior planner for the APC. He says he's still reviewing the data and wants to break out more of the information.
"Looking at the crash reports, 40% were alcohol or drug related," he says.
Poad says some of the reports did not have the contributing factor when he reviewed them, so he thinks more than 40% were caused by an impaired driver.