CAMPO releases Jefferson City car crash data

JEFFERSON CITY — Jefferson City drivers are getting into an average of 1,550 car accidents per year.

That's according to a new report from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or CAMPO, that was presented Thursday to a group of city officials.

CAMPO staff took available crash data from within Jefferson City limits over a five-year period from 2013 through 2017, the most recent year for which figures are available.

The total number of accidents rose from 1,470 in 2013 to its peak of 1,690 in 2016. That number fell to slightly below average in 2017, with 1,528 collisions occurring.

Even though CAMPO covers Holts Summit, Jefferson City, St. Martins, Taos, Wardsville and other sections of Cole and Callaway counties, staff looked specifically within Jefferson City limits since a majority of car accidents happen there.

The study was done primarily to identify the type and frequency of accidents, not to present possible solutions to those accidents.

"It was more of an informational session to give membership an idea of what kind of crashes are occurring within those nine higher priority areas that already on a lot of the priority lists for the Capital area," Jefferson City Planning Manager Eric Barron said.

The study focused on nine high-volume accident areas in the city. Barron identified Missouri Boulevard, Highway 50 through downtown and the Missouri River Bridge as particularly bad areas in the city. Those three stretches account for around 30 percent of all collisions in the city.

Rear-end collisions were the most common by far. Drivers got into 2,257 rear-end collisions, accounting for 29.17 percent of total accidents during the five-year span. Speeding and reckless driving caused 1,427 accidents, or 18.44 percent. Right-angle collisions, or "t-boning," caused 1,395 accidents, and other factors such as passing and collisions with deer made up the remaining 30 percent.

Six people were killed in 2017, which was down from eight deaths in 2015 and 2016 each. Severe injuries were almost cut in half over the five-year period, from around 75 in 2013 to just over 40 in 2017.

Barron said organizations such as MoDOT already have the data that was presented available to them, but he hopes the streamlined presentation will help better inform any city planning decisions in the future.