Traffic commission gets briefed on Bloomington safe streets plan, 124-mph Tesla crash
At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s traffic commission was briefed on the city’s draft Safe Streets and Roads for All Safety Action Plan.
The document describes “programs, policies, and projects that aim to eliminate serious
injuries and fatalities on Bloomington’s streets by 2039.”
The goal of zero deaths and fatalities inside of 15 years was adopted by the city council in April of this year.
Presenting the plan to the traffic commission was Bloomington’s planning services manager, Ryan Robling. He described the scale of the problem: Between 2019 and 2023 there have been 443 fatal or life-altering crashes on Bloomington streets.
As a legislative matter, the Safe Streets plan is an amendment to the transportation plan that will be requested of the city council. The plan could appear on the city council agenda as soon as Nov. 6.
The Safe Streets plan was met this week with a positive reception from the traffic commission. That followed a positive vote on the Safe Streets plan from the Bloomington plan commission at its meeting earlier this month.
Also on Wednesday, city engineer Andrew Cibor presented the traffic commission with his review of a fatal single-vehicle crash on Atwater Avenue that took place in March.
The jarring news from Cibor’s presentation was the fact that the Tesla was going 124 mph a couple of seconds before crashing into a tree. Still, Cibor identified steps that might reduce the likelihood of such a crash in the future.
The posted speed limit for Atwater is 25 mph.
Reviews of local fatal crashes like the one Cibor did on Wednesday are now routine. The expectation that the city engineer will provide such a review was laid out in a resolution by the traffic commission, which was approved a couple of years ago.
The crash took place at the intersection of Atwater Avenue and Arbutus Drive on March 24, 2024 after midnight, at 12:22 a.m. According to Cibor’s report, the Tesla was headed east on Atwater, when just past the intersection of Eastside Drive, it jumped up onto the curb on the right (south) side of the road and drove that way for 88 feet, then recovered and veered left back onto the roadway.
But the Tesla then kept some momentum to the left and wound up leaving the roadway again at the northeast corner of the Atwater and Arbutus intersection. Cibor said the Tesla became airborne before impact.
There’s a ditch and an embankment on the left (north) side of the road that could have served as a kind of ramp that sent the car skyward.
According to Cibor, 2.8 seconds before impact, the Tesla was traveling 124 miles an hour. The driver had “their pedal to the metal,” Cibor said, adding that there was “truly 100-percent accelerator pedal usage.” At impact, the car was going 104 miles an hour, Cibor said.
Part of the required report from the engineer is a breakdown of the infrastructure design attributes that may have contributed to the crash. As a possible design feature that might have been a factor, Cibor identified the “horizontal curve” that starts at Eastside Drive—it’s a subtle but clear bend that sends Atwater a bit northward.
Continuing perfectly straight through the Atwater and Eastside intersection would put a driver up on the right-hand (south) curb of the street.
As another relevant infrastructure design feature, Cibor also noted that heading east up until Eastside, Atwater is continuously lit with streetlights, but east of Eastside only the intersections are lit.
Contributing factors to the crash also included the driver’s high level of blood alcohol content, Cibor said.
Cibor also noted that the driver had five prior speed infractions in the state of Indiana. Based on what he’s learned at professional conferences, Cibor said, some patterns are starting to be identified—which link the fault for fatal crashes to drivers who have a history of unsafe driving practices.
The connection between fatal crashes and drivers with a history of risky driving behavior fed into Cibor’s listing of steps that could reduce the likelihood for a similar crash in the future. He suggested lobbying the legislature for better ways to keep repeat speeding offenders off the road.
Cibor also suggested lobbying the state legislature for better ways of enforcing speed limits, like using automatic cameras. Indiana state law does not currently allow for ticketing of speeders with automatic cameras.
At the federal level, Cibor suggested lobbying for restrictions on vehicle manufacture. He noted that Teslas are relatively “smart” vehicles that should be able to know what the speed limit is based on their location. He also questioned whether cars should be designed to be able go 124 miles an hour.
