Trending
A lot of money is being spent to make Route 60 safer.
Roughly $4 million was spent widening Route 60 and adding passing lanes in Gerry and Charlotte over the past couple of years. The road is slated to be widened again from Route 83 to Route 20 so a two-way turning lane can be installed.
The spending is worth it. Parts of Route 60 have needed work for quite some time. Adding a center turning lane should make it less likely to have a head-on crash on Route 60 by giving a buffer zone between opposing lanes of traffic while also giving vehicles turning left a place to go without holding up traffic.
But the state Transportation Department can only do so much. Almost 25% of crashes on Route 60 are caused by driver error -- driver inattention (11%) and following too closely (11%). Other factors cited include failure to yield the right of way, unsafe speed, unsafe lane change and improper turns. That's not a problem with the way the road is built. It's a problem with the way we drive.
"It seems that too many drivers are impatient and are not paying attention to their surroundings," Quattrone said recently.
Chautauqua County isn't an anomaly. According to a recent New York Times analysis of federal data, per capita vehicle deaths increased 17.5% from the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2021, the largest two-year increase since just after World War II. In October, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported more drivers testing positive for opioids since March 2020, compared to the six months prior while also reporting a roughly 50% increase in the number of drivers testing positive for use of marijuana. Seat belt use is also down, according to the DOT.
Traffic safety is, by and large, something anyone who climbs behind the wheel of a vehicle can control. No amount of spending on Route 60 or other dangerous stretches of road can fix the leading cause of car accidents -- drivers not taking proper precautions while on the road.