MILWAUKEE COUNTY, Wis. — Milwaukee County names the worst of the worst intersections, outside the city of Milwaukee. These top five hotspots have the highest injury crashes in the county.
Those five intersections are across the county. They are:
- Mayfair Road and Capitol Drive, Wauwatosa
- Mayfair Road and Watertown Plank Road, Wauwatosa
- 108th Street and National Avenue, West Allis
- 108th Street and Layton Avenue, Greenfield
- Packard and Layton Avenue, Cudahy
Clifford King has lived next to Mayfair Road and Capitol Drive for more than 20 years.
“It is a very busy intersection. Sometimes you find car parts on the side because there are quite a few accidents that happen here,” said King.
Just as TMJ4 News was setting up a camera to talk to Clifford, there was a near crash. Two cars drove into the turn-only lane and then instead of turning, drove straight and cut off the other cars going straight through the intersection.
“There was almost an accident because the one car was speeding up and they actually had to break before he hit the car, to avoid hitting the car going through the intersection,” said King.
The intersection of Mayfair Road and Capitol is considered one of the 5 of the worst intersections in the county outside of the city. According to Jeff Sponcia, who is the transportation program planning manager for Milwaukee County’s Department of Transportation, says the data shows the five intersections have the highest rate of injury crashes. The county found a common factor for why more crashes with injuries were happening at these intersections.
“Our state highways, our county trunk highways are wide roads with high speeds so naturally the higher the speed limit the more crashes,” said Sponcia.
Wauwatosa has two of the five worst intersections. Third Ward Wauwatosa Alderman Joseph Makhlouf, whose district includes one of those intersections, says he hears from people across his area that the problem extends well beyond a bad intersection.
“They are concerned about the effects reckless driving is having on the city and on the residents themselves. Sometimes this stuff spills over into the residential neighborhoods which is a great concern,” said Makhlouf.
He says Wauwatosa Police are targeting recklessly driving in a unique way.
“The police department is using a 40-40-20 approach on things; 40 percent on traffic calming procedures, 40 percent on enforcement and 20 percent on education for people to tell them to slow down,” said Makhlouf. “We don’t want to issue a bunch of citations. We want to see what kind of measures we can do to actually calm the traffic and slow people down naturally.”
Milwaukee County is wrapping up a listening session that had them visiting all 19 municipalities in the county to hear from people about their specific concerns with reckless driving. If you did not attend a session, but want your voice heard, it is not too late. You can still fill out the online survey here until August 31.
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