Two Injured in Nampa Car Accident

A car accident in Nampa injured two people on Tuesday when a passenger car and a cement truck collided. According to the Idaho State police, the passenger car was driving north on Franklin Boulevard when he missed a stop sign at an intersection and was hit by a cement truck, which was headed east on Highway 20/26. The cement truck tipped over onto its side due to the impact of the car accident, and the car was significantly damaged. Both the driver of the car and the driver of the cement truck were injured from the car accident and taken to a Boise hospital. Their conditions have not yet been released.

According to a 2012 analysis published by the Transportation Research Forum using statistics compiled from the NHTSA, approximately 36% of fatal accidents at intersections are at stop signs, as opposed to 33% at traffic signals and 25% at locations with no traffic control devices. The same data set also reports that car crashes with injuries are higher at stop signs than other traffic control devices. About half of all urban accidents occur at intersections, and signalized stop-controlled intersections create a substantial crash risk. A survey conducted in 2003 by the National Safe Kids Campaign showed that nearly half of the 25,660 vehicles surveyed at intersections with a stop sign violated the sign by not coming to a complete stop at intersections.

This worrying research asks the question why drivers are not complying with stop signs, as stop-sign controlled intersections present a significant risk to driver safety? Although certain ecological issues such as greenery or built environment can limit the visibility of stop signs, the most significant variable in stop-sign behavior was driver behavior, explained as a result of carelessness, lack of attention, unnecessary overconfidence in controlling their surrounding, and even the driver’s socio-demographic background. Compositional behavioral variables also include age, gender, and cell phone use while approaching a stop sign. According to a 2009 observation study, the greatest contributing factors that caused most drivers to completely stop at a stop sign were the presence of conflicting traffic and vehicle movement, followed by vehicle arrival sequences, and the driver’s age group. The study found that drivers during off-peak traffic periods have a higher probability of not completely stopping than those during peak periods (probably because of less conflicting movement from pedestrians or other vehicles).

A 2004 NHTSA study also found that speeding was a significant influencing factor for fatal accidents in which the driver violated the traffic signal or stop sign. Vehicle speed influences failure to stop or look adequately for oncoming traffic. Age was also a significant factor in stop-sign behavior. According to a 2007 comparative analysis crashes where drivers failed to yield the right of way increases with age and occurs mostly at stop-controlled intersections.