South Dakota 2007 Five Percent Report

This report is in response to the Federal requirement that each state describe at least 5 percent of its locations currently exhibiting the most severe highway safety needs, in accordance with Sections 148(c)(1)(D) and 148(g)(3)(A), of Title 23, United States Code. Each state's report is to include potential remedies to the hazardous locations identified; estimated costs of the remedies; and impediments to implementation of the remedies other than costs. The reports included on this web site represent a variety of methods utilized and various degrees of road coverage. Therefore, this report cannot be compared with the other reports included on this Web site.

Protection from Discovery and Admission into Evidence—Under 23 U.S.C. 148(g)(4) information collected or compiled for any purpose directly relating to this report shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location identified or addressed in the reports.

Additional information, including the specific legislative requirements, can be found in the guidance provided by the Federal Highway Administration,
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/safetealu/fiveguidance.htm.

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This report was prepared by the South Dakota Department of Transportation to satisfy the requirement of SAFETEA-LU, 23 U.S.C. 148 (c)(1)(D). The information in this report was gathered from the crash records data base maintained by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS), and is applicable to all public roads in South Dakota.

METHODOLOGY:

Using ArcGIS, the DPS crash records data base was queried for a count of all the fatality and incapacitating injury crashes on all public roads in South Dakota for the period January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2006. This resulted in 496 fatality crashes and 2551 incapacitating injury crashes for a total of 3047 fatal and incapacitating injury crashes statewide for the 3 year period (these fatality and incapacitating injury crashes will be referred to as crashes in the remainder of the report unless otherwise specified). In separating the city crashes from rural crashes, we found that of the 3047 total crashes in the state, 1107 crashes occurred in the cities and 1940 crashes occurred at rural locations. At the rural locations, we eliminated the locations where 1 crash occurred because they do not establish a trend. Therefore, we ended up with 726 crashes at the rural locations.

In the cities, we queried for the locations of the 1107 crashes. This yielded locations where 5, 4, and 3 crashes occurred. Locations with 2 crashes in the 3 years period were eliminated because we considered them a random occurrence and including them would greatly exceeded the 5% threshold for this report. Not including the intersections with 3 crashes would have given us less than the required 5%. The query produced the following: 2 intersections with 5 crashes, 3 intersections with 4 crashes, and 27 intersections with 3 crashes for a total of 32 intersections with 103 crashes. 103 crashes are 9.3% of the 1107 crashes. In order to get the number closer to 5%, we computed a crash rate for the 32 intersections using the crash rate formula for spot locations. The crash rates were sorted from highest to lowest, discarding some of the intersections with 3 crashes that yielded the lowest crash rate. After the process of elimination by crash rate, the following locations remained: 1 intersection with 5 crashes, 2 intersections with 4 crashes, 14 intersections with 3 crashes for a total of 17 intersections with 55 crashes or 5% of the 1107 crashes. These locations and crashes are located as follows: 7 locations in Rapid City with a total of 24 crashes, 7 locations in Sioux Falls with a total of 21crashes, 1 locations in Aberdeen with a total of 4 crashes, 1 location in Brookings with a total of 3 crashes, and 1 location in Watertown with a total of 3 crashes.

In the rural areas, roadway segments were queried for the locations of 726 crashes. We queried for the number of crashes per segment of roadway, which are those sections located between other intersecting roadways. The roadway segment with the highest number of crashes included 9 crashes. It was determined that if we used the segments with 9 crashes through 6 crashes, we would be reporting 7.3% of the crashes for those locations. The crash rates for the segments with 6 or more crashes were calculated using the crash rate formula for segments which considers crashes per average daily traffic (adt), length of segment, and period of time. The crash rates were sorted from highest to lowest and discarded some of the segments having 6 crashes. This produced 6 locations with 41 crashes, or 5.65% of the 726 crashes. After the process of elimination by crash rate, the following segments remained: US 14A - Boulder Canyon - MRM 49.50 - 51.10 with 9 crashes, US 16 - MRM 47.10 - 48.40 with 7 crashes, US 14A - MRM 12.50 - 15.20 with 7 crashes, US 385 - MRM 118.2 with 6 crashes, US 16A - Custer State Park - MRM 31.25 - 36.20 with 6 crashes, and US 14A - MRM 49.1 - 49.5 with 6 crashes.

With the relatively low number of crashes across South Dakota, we found that the locations identified have a corresponding low number of crashes and a low crash rate based on the fatality and incapacitating injury crashes. It should be noted that the above methods have identified locations that may qualify for the Roadway Safety Improvement (RSI) process used in South Dakota to identify hazardous locations. The RSI process identifies locations where 5 or more crashes have occurred in the most recent 3-year period. The methods above have identified a number of locations where less than 5 crashes have occurred in a 3-year period and would not be considered significant enough to be considered for the RSI process. If the location does not qualify for the RSI process, the location will be monitored for crashes, type of crashes and crash severity.

The following is a summary of the locations and crashes:

RURAL LOCATIONS:

1 = Fatal Crashes. 2 = Incapacitating Injury Crashes.

Hwy	MRM	Region	Location/Description	Fatal 1	Injury 2	Total	Comments/Recommendations
US 14A	49.50 – 51.10	R. City	Boulder Canyon –  0.75 to 2.35 mile west of Sturgis	1	8	9	Fatality - motorcycle crossed centerline causing head-on crash.  Injury – Motorcycle crashes during Sturgis Rally (4of 8). Run off road and rear end crashes during congestion. Remaining are run off road during snow, distracted driver ran across centerline, rear end (Lt turn), run off road (officer in pursuit). RSI Team will investigate.
US 16	47.10 – 48.40	R. City	US 16 between Keystone Wye and 3-Forks Jct (US 385).	2	5	7	Fatalities – Alcohol involved driver crossed centerline struck motorcycle head-on. Alcohol involved driver rear ended motorcycle stopped to make left turn.  Injury – Run off road crashes (4) 1 involved slippery conditions.  One run off road to avoid rear-end collision.   Under construction in 2006 – 2007.  Monitor.
US 14A	12.50 – 15.20	R. City	Spearfish Canyon – From 2.00 to 4.70 miles south of the intersection of Colorado Blvd in Spearfish.	0	7	7	Predominately run off the road accidents (5 of 7) at curve. One motorcycle hit gravel laid down and one motorcycle crossed centerline struck another motorcycle head on.  RSI Team will investigate curve at MRM 13.1
US 385	118.2	R. City	3.84 miles south of Jct US 85 in Lead.	0	6	6	4 of 6 crashes involve vehicles failing to negotiate curve at MRM 118.2 (3 of 4 involve motorcycles).  5th & 6th crash involve motorcycle hitting deer and 2nd motorcycle hit debris of 1st crash.  RSI Team will investigate curve at MRM 118.2.
US 16A	31.25 – 36.20	R. City	Custer State Park – From 0.61 to 5.56 miles east of the Jct of  SD 87 south.	2	4	6	Fatalities – In  first crash, driver of motorcycle failed to recognize that vehicles ahead were slowing down, swerved, laid cycle down, and passenger was killed.  In second crash, westbound left-turning motorcycle collided with eastbound motorcycle – driver of EB cycle was killed. Both crashes were driver error.  Injuries – Run off the road crashes – various reasons.  Monitor.
US 14A	49.1 – 49.5	R. City	Boulder Canyon – 2.35 miles to 2.75 miles west of Sturgis	3	3	6	Fatalities – 1. Distracted  motorcycle driver crossed centerline, sideswiped camper trailer, and struck a pickup following the camper head-on.  Driver of cycle killed. 2. Westbound motorcycle crossed centerline and struck eastbound motorcycle head-on.  Both motorcycle drivers killed. 3.  Westbound vehicle crossed centerline and struck eastbound vehicle head-on.  Driver of westbound vehicle killed – may have had medical problem.   Injuries – 3 crashes where motorcycles entered curve too fast crossed centerline and collided with vehicles. DOT is monitoring location. Countermeasures are being considered.

CITY LOCATIONS:

City	Region	Location	Fatal 1	Injury 2	Total	Comments/Recommendations
Aberdeen	Aberdeen	8th Ave. NE & Roosevelt	0	4	4	Predominately left turn and angle crashes due to failure to yield at red light.  Driver behavioral Issues.
Brookings	Aberdeen	8th St. S & Main St.	0	3	3	Predominately failure to yield type crashes at a signalized intersection.Driver behavioral issues.
Watertown	Aberdeen	US 212 & 29th St SE	2	1	3	Fatalities – DUI driver rear-ended vehicle killing driver of front vehicle.  Left-turning driver failed to yield to through traffic. Passenger killed in left-turning vehicle.  Injuries – Failed to yield on left turn.  DOT added a protected left-turn phase to the signal.
Rapid City	R. City	SD 44 (Omaha) & Cambell St.	0	5	5	Rear-end (2), left turn (1), & angle (2) crashes.  Red light running. Driver behavioral issues.  RSI Team will investigate.
Rapid City	R. City	5th St. & St Patrick St.	0	4	4	Left turn (2) & angle crashes (2) while running red light. Driver behavioral issues.
Rapid City	R. City	Disk Dr. & North Haines Ave	0	3	3	Rear end (2) & left turn crashes (1) failure to yield at signalized intersection. Driver behavioral issues.
Rapid City	R. City	LaCrosse St. & Meridian Lane	0	3	3	Rear end (1) & left turn crashes (2) failure to yield at signalized intersection. DUI & failure to yield. Driver behavioral issues.
Rapid City	R. City	W. Main St. & Sturgis Rd.	0	3	3	Left turn – failure to yield @ signal (2). Run off road /fixed object (1) – excess speed DUI.  Driver behavioral issues.
Rapid City	R. City	St. Joseph St. & St. Patrick St.	1	2	3	Fatality – Vehicle rear ended motorcycle.  Motorcycle driver killed.  Driver of vehicle influenced by  marijuana & using cell phone.  Driver of vehicle charged with vehicle homicide.  Injuries – Left-turning vehicle failed to yield.  Vehicle entering roadway from driveway & failed to yield to traffic.  Monitor.
Rapid City	R. City	US 16 (Rushmore Rd.) & South St.	0	3	3	Rear end (1), cross centerline (1) DUI, angle crash (1) DUI.  Driver behavioral issues.
Sioux Falls	Mitchell	34th St. & Minnesota Ave,	0	3	3	Rear end (2), Driver inattentiveness. Angle crash (1) bus obstructed sight distance.  Driver behavioral issues.
Sioux Falls	Mitchell	41st St. & Westport Ave.	0	3	3	Bicycle struck side of vehicle as vehicle pulled away from stop sign. Bicycle had no brakes.  Left-turning vehicle - failed to yield. Rear end – DUI.   Driver behavioral issues.
Sioux Falls	Mitchell	42nd St & Western	1	2	3	Fatality – Left-turning vehicle failed to yield – driver killed – Citation issued.  Injuries – Left-turning vehicle leaving mall struck 2 pedestrians as they crossed mid-block.  Vehicle left roadway & struck sign – DUI.   Driver behavioral issues.
Sioux Falls	Mitchell	69th St. & Minnesota Ave.	0	3	3	Left-turning failure to yield at signal(2).  Angle crash (1) ran red light.   Driver behavioral issues.
Sioux Falls	Mitchell	6th St. & Phillips Ave.	0	3	3	Left-turning vehicle failed to yield to bicycle at signal (1) – Citation issued.  Angle crashes (2) ran red light – 1 DUI.   Driver behavioral issues.
Sioux Falls	Mitchell	6th St. & Cliff Ave.	0	3	3	Motorcycle laid down to avoid vehicle that suddenly stopped in front of him. Left-turning vehicle leaving driveway failed to yield. Right-turning vehicle cut in front of vehicle in right lane.     Driver behavioral issues.
Sioux Falls	Mitchell	6th St. & Lowell	0	3	3	Rear-end crashes (2) following too close. Left-turning vehicle – failed to yield.  Driver behavioral issues.