By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
In the last 10 years in Northfield, there have been 907 crashes, 28 of which were serious or fatal. In Rice County, there were nearly 8,000 crashes, of which 250 were serious or fatal, and across the state, 18,000 lives have been lost in car accidents in the same time frame. Among the serious or fatal accidents in Northfield, ⅔ of those were in vehicles, and the remaining third were from pedestrians and bikes.
Public Works Director and City Engineer for the City of Northfield, David Bennett, says that with those numbers in mind, safety is always a main priority in design.
Listen to the news:
“ We want safety for motorists, but we want the safety for the other roadway users because the data is showing that we have an issue and we’re having serious crashes on our roadways.” – David Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer at the 7/29/2025 Transportation Network Townhall
Bennett cited speed as the main factor in traffic deaths for all involved. In one cited study, it was shown that drivers are likely to yield to pedestrians 75% of the time when traveling 20 mph, but when traveling above 40 mph, the yield rate drops to only 17%. Additionally, noting that the field of vision among drivers improves as they slow down, and braking distance is shorter. Bennett stated that they are factoring in ways to design roads and pedestrian crossings that slow down traffic:
“You seen some of these projects that have been implemented you’ve seen narrowing of the roadways you’ve seen shortening Crossing distance for pedestrians we’ve been marking pedestrian Crossings we’ve installed the flashing beacons where The Pedestrian walks up and it hits the beacon we’ve been separating the vehicles from the bikes to improve the the safety of the the bikes on the roadway.” – David Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer at the 7/29/2025 Transportation Network Townhall
In the next several weeks, we will be covering the future of different road construction projects in Northfield.
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