Crashes Up 84 Percent Since Elliott Street Highway Upgrades

A year-and-a-half after the state spent $23 million to re-engineer a section of Route 128 and two interchanges in Danvers, - including one that is the connection to downtown Beverly - police say the number of accidents has increased in certain spots.

Recognizing there is further work to be done to improve safety and traffic flow, the state is engaged in a study of Elliott Street, in particular, where three new stoplights were added and new highway ramps installed, completely changing the dynamic of the interchange from Liberty Street down to State Road in Danvers at exit 22.

Exit 22, while located in Danvers, is the exit used by many drivers coming from the south that are headed to downtown Beverly and the Cummings Center.

Danvers Town Manager Wayne Marquis says a road safety audit was conducted last month by a working group of state and town representatives and a final report should be available in the next week or so with recommendations for the state and/or town. The audit did include the highway interchange at High Street (exit 23) as well.

The state Department of Transportation, state police, Danvers engineers, Danvers police, traffic engineering consultants, state Rep. Ted Speliotis and Marquis met Nov. 22 for a site visit to both areas and discussion of the issues back at Town Hall. Marquis said Speliotis initiated the review and Marquis said he was impressed by the degree of collaboration.

Even though the state government does have jurisdiction over both interchanges, the state DOT is looking to actively work with Danvers to address the problems, Marquis said. He's not sure what the final report will yield, but expects it will contain some measures both the state and town can take.

A recent report from Danvers Police Public Safety Analyst Sarah Slavin says 56 crashed occurred between January and July 2013 at the on-ramp to Route 128 North from Elliott Street. That's an 84 percent increase over the average number of accidents there the previous two years during the same period.

In 2011, there were 25 and in 2012, there were 39 during the same period. She noted 16 of those 39 crashes in the first seven months of 2012, however, happened after the new ramps opened in June.

She said 26 of the crashes reported for 2013 involved a driver taking a left turn while five were due to rear-end collisions.

Those numbers don't include any incidents the state police may have handled or accidents in which police weren't called to the scene.

Slavin also noted those figures may include crashes that occurred on Route 128 near Exit 22 and do include crashes at the intersections of Elliott Street with State Road and Liberty Street because those intersections are often given as the location for crashes at the ramps.

One other thing the data does not speak to is accidents on the ramps themselves, where state officials say there were daily accidents prior to the upgrades.