BILLINGS - In the 2022 Billings Police Department annual report, the areas with the most car crashes in town were identified, with the number one spot at the intersection of King Avenue West and South 20th Street West.
The busy intersection had 39 car crashes reported last year. Lenard Slemp works at a business nearby and was not surprised to hear of this dangerous intersection.
“Wintertime usually we see at least one a week just from people trying to speed through. During the summer we get, occasionally one to two a week just because everybody’s in a rush trying to blow through the light,” Slemp said. “We usually spend most of the winter talking about if we’re having an accident in a day.”
The second intersection with multiple wrecks is just a little over a mile away. Central Avenue and 24th Street West had 36 accidents reported in 2022.
City Engineer Mac Fogelsong was not surprised at the areas with the most crashes, due to the volume of traffic the intersections see.
“The highest use that we see tends to correlate to the highest number of crashes,” Fogelsong said.
But something that Fogelsong did find interesting was the total amount of wrecks in 2022.
“One thing we noted actually was the total number of crashes from 2021 to 2022 actually went down,” he said.
In 2021, 4,084 crashes were reported versus the 3,816 that were reported in 2022. According to the Billings Police Department report, most vehicle crashes happen between 3-6 p.m.
Bill Schuyler, a produce delivery driver, was not shocked by any of the top intersections. He is always on Billings roads and said he sees a lot of reckless driving.
“I see a lot of people that are inconsiderate. They’re always in a hurry. They don’t know how to break; they don’t know how to blinker. And basically, a lot of them don’t know how to drive,” Schuyler said.
Main Street and Lake Elmo Drive and the roundabout at King Avenue West and South Shiloh Road both had 31 wrecks reported last year.
Fogelsong said a vehicle collision at a roundabout could end with a better outcome than one at a traffic light.
“Because they’re low speed, typically they’re kind of side swipe type interactions. Not the nasty T-bone crashes that you might have at a traffic signal.”
Three roundabouts on Shiloh Road made the top 10 list:
- King Avenue West and South 20th Street West, 39
- Central Avenue and 24th Street West, 36
- Main Street and Lake Elmo Drive, 31
- King Avenue West and South Shiloh Road, 31
- South 24th Street West and King Avenue West, 25
- Monad Road and South 24th Street West, 20
- Wicks Lane and Main Street, 20
- Central Avenue and Shiloh Road, 20
- Shiloh Road and Grand Avenue, 20
- North 27th Street and Sixth Avenue North, 18
