Starke County Fares Well in State Road Safety Rankings

Posted on February 8, 2017
Author Mary Perren, WKVI

Starke County’s roads are among the safest in the state based on crash data. Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler told the county commissioners Monday the statistics are based on the number of miles driven.

“They did an index of the collisions for every county, one being the worst and 92 being the best. We are 88.”

Ritzler adds the report looks at numerous categories of collisions, including deer, those caused by unsafe intersections and those related to speed.

Ritzler adds the county’s aggressive seasonal brush cutting efforts help to significantly reduce the number of wrecks. He says each of the crew members will receive a commendation for their work.

“They don’t like cutting brush, but one of the biggest things about roadway safety is the cutting of brush, especially with deer coming out into the roadways and sight distance,” he said.

Ritzler also told the commissioners he reviews crash data each month.

“Anything that’s potentially road related or condition related, I go out to the site to see if there’s anything, if there is a sight distance, to see if there is something we can do. It’s on the county right of way, so we do do that every month. I think that makes a difference as well.”

Ritzler also tracks anything that may have been related to roadway conditions.

“The last couple months there were 60 collisions and only a couple of them were roadway condition related. So one thing I do do also is if it’s an icy or slick roadway, I check our GPS to see if our guy put the salt-sand down there at some time. Even when you put the salt-sand down, as you know, the roads are still slick. A lot of times it’s just someone going too fast, but at least we can prove that we put the material down. That GPS is very helpful in that and continues to be.”

Ritzler adds the state’s rankings are based on data from 2015, which is similar to 2016’s figures.