Redesign Hopes to Reduce Poughkeepsie Car Accidents On Route 9 and 44/55

Injured in a car accident in Poughkeepsie? There’s a good chance that one of these roads are part of the story: Route 9 and Route 44/45.

According to a recent report published by the Dutchess County Transportation Council, the area around the Route 9 and Route 44/55 interchange and intersections along Route 44/55 had a tragic number of crashes between 2016 and 2018:

These crashes resulted in:

• 2 Deaths
• 421 Injuries
• 578 Cases of Severely Damaged Property

For most of the intersections, the crash rate was significantly higher than the New York State average for intersections; as high as double.

The types of accidents included:

Lots of factors can contribute to an accident, and understanding them is critical to both preventing accidents and making sure that accident victims are fairly compensated for their injuries, lost wages, and pain & suffering. While factors like distracted driving, drunk driving, and speeding play a factor in many of these accidents, it’s undeniable that the design of the roadway is also a major common element.

That’s where the Poughkeepsie 9.44.55 project is coming in. Announced in 2019, the project is a collaboration between Dutchess County, the State Department of Transportation, and the City and Town of Poughkeepsie. Earlier this month, the Dutchess County Transportation Council unveiled four different planning concepts for the Route 9/44/55 interchange, with the stated goals of improving “safety, livability, and connectivity, while delivering acceptable traffic operations.”

So far, they’ve presented four options to the public for feedback:

Option One

Option Two

Option Three

Option Four

To see more information about the project and provide feedback, visit https://www.poughkeepsie94455.com/virtual-meeting.

Even the best designed roads have unintended consequences in certain cases for accident victims. If you’ve been injured in an car accident due to another party’s negligence, give us a call at 845-600-0000 for a free consultation.

We recently wrote about some of the ways accident victims may be compensated in roadway defects cases. They include:

• If you’re on a road or a sidewalk, you have the right to expect that they are properly maintained and designed. That includes if you’re a driver, pedestrian, bicyclist or motorcyclist.
• Municipalities and transportation agencies carry large amounts of insurance for when people are injured as a result of roadway defects. In order to award compensation after an accident, they also may have been given prior written notice of the defect before the accident and been given an adequate amount of time to fix it.
• If you’re taking action against a local municipality or a county, you have 90 days to file a notice of claim. If you’re going to take action against a state agency, you have 90 days to file a notice of intention of claim.
• Some common causes for roadway design flaws may include the dimensions of the road, the shoulder width and placement, the placement or non-placement of a railing, dangerous intersections and incorrectly designed bike lanes or paths.
• Some of the common maintenance issues include potholes, uneven sidewalks, excessive gravel or oil, debris, non-functioning street lights or traffic signs, and inadequate traffic cone placement. 
• Reconstructing the conditions on the day of the accident are critical to winning a roadway defects case.