On Sept. 24, a motorcycle traveling in Cottonwood on State Route 260 ran a red light at Rodeo Drive and plowed into a car, according to a Cottonwood Police Department investigation.
The two 16-year-old riders on the motorcycle and the 30-year-old woman driving the car were all treated for injuries they sustained in the crash.
Earlier that week, there was another crash along the same stretch of road, running roughly from the intersection of State Route 260 and Rio Mesa Trail to State Route 89A.
These were just two traffic incidents out of many that happen along that highway corridor, including some portions of the highway south to Del Rio Drive, where there are several entrances into the heavily populated Verde Villages neighborhood.
There were 171 recorded traffic accidents in the area between Jan. 1, 2013, and Aug. 28, 2015, according to the Cottonwood Police Department.
That’s an average of more than five incidents a month in the public right-of-way.
There were other incidents investigated by the CPD in the area during the same time period but those took place on private property like parking lots and are not included in the numbers.
It’s not immediately possible to determine the seriousness of each of these incidents, such as whether they were merely fender-benders or injury accidents.
Of all the incidents, four were reported at the intersection of Rodeo Drive and State Route 260, the signaled intersection that leads into Walmart.
On the other side of Walmart, Rio Mesa Trail provides access to the shopping area as well as a portion of the Verde Villages.
There is no traffic signal at that intersection and 13 traffic incidents were recorded.
On the stretch of State Route 260 between Fir Street and State Route 89A, 29 traffic incidents were reported at specific street addresses.
The remaining 125 incidents were reported all along the corridor at various spots, including where State Route 260 crosses Del Rio Drive and Prairie Lane and other immediately unspecified spots all the way up to the State Route 260/ State Route 89A intersection.
The number of reported incidents spikes in the summer months. August 2013 saw the most with 11.
April 2013 was the only month that saw no traffic incidents reported along that stretch of road.
For all of 2013, there were 56 reported traffic accidents. In 2014, there were 61. As of the end of August, 2015 was on track to see more traffic incidents than both those years, with 54 reported.
Most incidents were reported in the middle of the day, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., with 66 of the 171 incidents reported during that window.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, Oct. 7, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
