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Crime & Safety

No Accidents on Avon Mountain Since Construction Completion

A new median, additional travel lanes, automatic weather sensors and truck run-off ramp are some of the safety features; speeding and cell phone use still a concern.

A number of new safety features are now in effect on Avon Mountain as part of an effort to improve driver safety and reduce accidents.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation's two-and-a-half year construction project on the mountain is now complete. The highly travelled road is "less steep and wider," according to Avon Police Chief Mark Rinaldo.

"I think it's a good design and should improve safety," Rinaldo said. "Now all we have to do is keep the speed and distracted driving at a minimum."

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A truck run-off ramp has been built at the base of the mountain in Avon, with a cabling system similar to the cabling on air force carriers. If a truck is traveling westbound over a certain speed, lighted signs flash to alert drivers of the off-ramp ahead. The traffic lights at the intersections of Waterville Road, Nod Road and Route 44 automatically change to "get the cars out of the way" in order to make way for the trucks, according to Rinaldo.

The entire strip along the mountain now has two lanes in each direction. Previously, the road merged into single lanes from West Hill Road near the top to the bottom of the mountain in Avon.      

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A new median divider by Deercliff Road and Wright Drive, where the highest rate of "crossover accidents" has occurred, was designed to allow drivers "more margin for error," Rinaldo said.

"Before if you travelled out of your lane, you'd get in a head-on or sideswipe," he said.    

 Several automatic weather sensors have been placed along the road to detect when the pavement is freezing. An alert is sent to the DOT garage on Waterville Road, so road sanding can begin immediately. In the past, there was no automatic system set up.       

The road pitch at the top of the mountain has been modified to "be more consistent with driver behavior," Rinaldo said, and the curves have been softened, making the road straighter.

"People can see farther and have better sight lines," he added.      

New retaining walls and fences have been built along the side of the road in areas that were cleared, and low shrubs have been planted along the median, to make the road more "aesthetically pleasing," Rinaldo said.

While most of the construction occurred on the Avon side of the mountain, about 100 yards extend into West Hartford.

Arnold Chase, who owns a 51,000-square-foot home just above Deercliff Road, financed the widening of the road for several hundred feet near his driveway on Route 44 in order to get approval on his building permit. Cars turning into his driveway from either direction would have resulted in "stacking in the left lane," which might have caused accidents, Rinaldo said.

Avon Mountain has long been known as a dangerous stretch and has been the .

"It's a heavily travelled road. The mountain needs a lot of attention," Rinaldo said.

In 2005, an American Crushing and Recycling dump truck lost its brakes and barreled down the mountain and across the intersection, killing four people and injuring several others.

Two years later, a flatbed tractor-trailer lost its brakes; the truck went airborne and smashed into the side of the Nassau Furniture building on Route 44. Luckily, Rinaldo said, there were no cars in the intersection or lives might have been lost a second time.

He noted that no accidents have been reported since the project was completed in early December, but he expressed concern that motorists are still speeding and using their cell phones.

"Traffic is flowing better, but people are also driving faster," Rinaldo said.

The Avon Police Department recently released that concentrated on Avon Mountain. Nearly half of the 129 drivers stopped during a five-hour period in the morning were talking on a cell phone while driving and nearly a quarter were speeding. 

Avon police continue to monitor traffic on the mountain and promote driver safety.

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