Hopewell Valley’s most dangerous road trip

It has to be Route 31 from the circle to I-95

By John Tredrea
   Almost everyone agrees the worst stretch of road in Hopewell Valley is the section of Route 31 between the Pennington Circle and Interstate 95.
   "My main fear is that the left-turn accidents we have that frequently become head-on collisions could involve a family and multiple fatalities," Capt. George Meyer of the Hopewell Township police said recently.
   How can a left-turn accident become, or nearly become, a head-on collision? Does that sound confusing? Not to Jeanne Imbrigiotta, who for many years has lived on the southbound side of Route 31 just north of I-95.
   During an early November session that focused on Route 31 — attended by Route 31 residents and officials of Hopewell Township and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT), which has jurisdiction over Route 31 because it is a state highway — Ms. Imbrigiotta told of a terrifying accident in which she recently had been involved.
   "I was headed north on 31, waiting for the southbound traffic to clear so that I could turn left into my driveway," she said. Before the traffic did clear, her car was rear-ended by a car going about 40 miles an hour, she said. "It knocked me into the southbound lane, where I was hit again by another car," she said. It was not a head-on collision, but it could have been. "I feel lucky to be alive and walking," said Ms. Imbrigiotta, who was not seriously injured.
   She said she had to wait so long to make her left that the car that ultimately hit her from behind was not even visible in her rear-view mirror when she first began waiting to make her turn.
   During a previous meeting devoted to discussion of Route 31, traffic consultant Steve Nemeth and other DOT representatives have broached the idea of erecting a concrete median, or so-called Jersey Barrier, between the two northbound and two southbound lanes of the 1.2-mile stretch of Route 31 between the interstate and the misnamed Pennington Circle, which is a straight road on its eastern side.
   But the majority consensus of the residents at the Route 31 meetings was that they didn’t want a median because it didn’t conform to their aesthetic vision of a Hopewell Valley that, in many areas, is still quite rural.
   PROBABLY NO ONE is on closer terms with this section of Route 31 than Frank Fechter. Mr. Fechter, 55, has lived on it since he was a few months old. While still a student at Hopewell Valley Central High School, he joined the Pennington First Aid Squad, of which he is still a member, and has responded to many accidents on "31 below the circle." In addition, he was a member of the Hopewell Township Police Department for 30 years, retiring as a lieutenant early this year, and responded to many accidents in that capacity as well.
   Mr. Fechter thinks a concrete median should be erected on 31 between the circle and interstate. "I would like to see the median go up," he said. "You would still have crashes, but not the head-ons we have now. I know the medians are ugly, but it’s too bad when aesthetics prevail over safety. Since the time I’ve been living on 31, there literally have been two fatal accidents on the road right at the end of my driveway."
   He continued: "There are 659 miles of roadway in Hopewell Township. One fourth of the serious motor vehicle accidents in the township occur on the 1.2-mile section of Route 31 between the circle and I-95. That illustrates how bad it is."
   Motorists on this notorious stretch of road often are in a hazardous hurry, Mr. Fechter said. "It never ceases to amaze me how many stopped school buses I see passed on 31. The children don’t cross 31 after being dropped off, but it still shocks me to see school buses passed when they’re stopped, no matter how many times I see it. And a lot of red lights get run by people trying to beat the red."
   There is a full-service traffic light on Route 31 just north of I-95 and another at Denow Road, midway between the circle and the interstate.
   "When I was a kid living on Route 31, there was not very much traffic at all," he said. "It started to increase quickly in the 1970s and it’s going to continue to increase."
   Like the DOT, which has nixed the idea repeatedly over the years, Mr. Fechter sees no merit in the idea of changing the configuration of Route 31 to one northbound lane and one southbound lane, with a center turning lane for both directions in the middle. He calls that proposed center turning lane "a chicken lane" and says: "I still think you’d have head-on collisions with a set-up like that and, anyway, there’s no way that section of 31 could handle the volume of traffic it gets with only one lane in each direction. Look at that road at rush hour. It’s very busy."
   Hearkening to the scenario described by Ms. Imbrigiotta, Mr. Fechter said: "A lot of the most serious crashes occur when people are stopped in the left lane, waiting to be able to make a left turn."
   CAPT. MEYER said there were 64 accidents on this stretch of Route 31 in 2003, 68 in 2004 and 47 this year though Aug. 31. Not all of the accidents involved injuries.
   Since the beginning of 2003, there has been one fatal accident, on June 28, 2004, at the intersection of Diverty Road. During that same time span, there have been 41 accidents involving injuries. "Of those 41, nine accidents had two injuries, one had three injuries and three had four injuries," he said.
   One-hundred and fifty-one of the accidents since Jan. 1, 2003 involved multiple vehicles, Capt. Meyer said. Twenty-eight involved single vehicles. "I’m sure some of the single-vehicle accidents involved deer," he said.
   Five of the accidents involved fixed objects, such as light poles.
   Eleven of the accidents occurred at the intersection of Orchard Avenue, which runs off the northbound side of 31. There were five and seven accidents respectively at the intersections of Crest Avenue and Brandon Road, which also run off the northbound side only. "One hundred and four of the accidents (since Jan. 1, 2003) resulted in summonses," continued Capt. Meyer. "Fourteen involved trucks. One-hundred and twenty-four involved vehicles traveling in the same direction. Twenty-two involved a vehicle turning left. Four were head-on."
   Turning left onto Orchard or Crest avenues while southbound on Route 31 is a dicey move. The road ahead swoops down and to the left in what locals have long called "killer curve" or "killer bend." Generating controversy during the meetings with the DOT have been the ideas of dead-ending Orchard and Crest at Route 31, or making them one-way. The streets would be one-way westbound, meaning motorists would only be able to turn onto 31, not off of it.
   To make any of these changes work, some dead-end residential streets in the Orchard-Crest area would be linked, making it possible to get onto Route 31 at the signalized Denow Road intersection.
   "Those are great ideas," Mr. Fechter said of the proposed changes involving Orchard and Crest. He noted that "none of that would be needed if you had the median on Route 31 itself."
   "It’s a real problem," concluded Capt. Meyer. "It’s like bumper cars down there."
   Are there other bad areas?
   "We have many minor fender-benders at state Route 29 and county Route 546, but these are not serious accidents," Capt. Meyer said. "Most of the bad curve areas have already been corrected over the years — Pennington-Titusville Road at Scotch Road West and Pennington-Rocky Hill Road at Titus Mill Road."
   He added: "Route 31 and Ingleside is a very hazardous intersection, but our accident rate there is not exceptional because so many people know it is bad and either avoid it or use due caution.
   "County Route 518 and Van Dyke Road was another one. The situation was corrected by making Van Dyke Road one way (south) only just below the intersection."