In response to recently collected data, the city of Murray has begun working with the Department of Highway Safety to investigate ways to make a stretch of 16th Street safer for vehicles and pedestrians.

According to a report compiled by the Murray State Police, in the past five years 26 people have been injured by cars while crossing the area between Five Points and Main Street, and there have been 75 wrecks – primarily cars being rear ended. There have also been 196 collisions resulting in property damage.

Matt Mattingly, city administrator, said the city and University have no definite plans as of yet to improve safety conditions along this section of 16th Street, but they recognize it is an issue.

“You’re looking at a main artery of traffic going through the core of the University,” Mattingly said. “When you have a large number of pedestrians and students trying to get to their vehicles to and from class, as well as a heavy amount of car traffic going through that same pathway, there’s obviously some safety that needs to be reviewed.”

Mattingly said an average of 7,200 vehicles travel along 16th Street per day. It is the third most used road by cars in Murray and the most used road by pedestrians.

The issue of increasing safety precautions along 16th Street was brought to the city’s attention two months ago by the City of Murray Public Safety Committee, who commissioned the city to compile data relating to the use of the road. The city presented its findings to the committee Feb 15.

Since the presentation of the city’s findings, the committee has conducted further research which has since been passed along to the engineering firm from the University of Kentucky Extension Office for the Department of Highway Safety. fThe firm will deliberate and recommend a course of action to the city.

“We’ve provided the engineering firm with collision data and we’re in the process right now of collecting pedestrian data,” Mattingly said. “We’ll get a count of all the pedestrians, what crosswalks they use and how many times they use those cross walks and the distance between each crosswalk. Once we get that data, we’ll submit that to the engineering firm and they’ll come back with some potential solutions for the city.”

Mattingly said he does not have the answer to how to make 16th Street safer and will rely on the engineering firm’s opinion.

“Hopefully, we can get a solution from them and then work with Murray State to get something enacted that is a solution for both the city and the University,” he said.

Jay Morgan, associate provost of graduate studies and chair of the City of Murray Public Safety Committee, was the one who raised the issue of improving safety measures along 16th Street. His proposed solution was to lower the speed limit on 16th Street from 25 mph to 15 mph.

Morgan said he was prompted to raise the issue after noticing how dangerous the street was for crossing pedestrians and for cars from his office which overlooks 16th Street.

“I had been noticing on this street there were a lot of screeches from cars stopping quickly and a lot of near misses involving students getting hit,” he said. “I think lowering the speed limit will protect faculty, staff and students crossing and hopefully lower the number of wrecks.”

Apart from the suggestion of lowering the speed limit, other possible solutions discussed have included improving or adding more crosswalks or shutting down the area of road that runs through the University all together.

Morgan said closing the road may be feasible in the future, but not with the fire department’s location.

“Some people mentioned closing the street between Calloway and Olive streets but I don’t think closure right now is the way to go,” Morgan said. “The problem with closing the street right now is the fire station located on South 16th Street houses the ladder truck that goes to the residential college area and there would be no way to get the ladder truck up and down this main thorough fair.”

Morgan said he hopes to get the pedestrian crossing data back in one to two weeks so the public safety committee can review the information and make their recommendation to the full city council.

He said the council will have made a decision on what safety measures to administer to the road by May at the latest.

 Story by Ben Manhanke, Staff writer.