TEANECK — A police study of the intersections near Route 4 and Queen Anne Road says there have been 16 car accidents in the area since 2012.
The preliminary review, which police released earlier this month, was in response to a petition hosted on Change.org that calls for unspecified safety improvements to Queen Anne Road at Dewey Place and the Route 4 interchange.
Now, township officials want to review that stretch of road in greater depth.
“The biggest problem is the intersection of Queen Anne Road and Route 4,” said Farah Gilani, the township engineer. “To make any improvements, we have to have a traffic study done to have some kind of idea.”
There is a growing demand for road safety in the township. There have been at least four fatal accidents there since December 2015. The two most recent occurred in November. A 27-year-old recent graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University and a 45-year-old nurse at Holy Name Medical Center were killed in separate accidents.
The Change.org petition is the second calling for traffic improvements to circulate through the township since November. The first was circulated by Fairleigh Dickinson University students in response to the death of a recent graduate on River Road. About 1,500 people signed that petition.
The latest petition was started by Marcia Schulman in response to a three-car accident on Dec. 14 at the exit ramp from Route 4 onto Queen Anne Road. Schulman did not respond to requests for comment. As of Friday, it 454 signatures.
On Dec. 14, a motorist driving a Ford Escape from Route 4 onto Queen Anne Road hit a Toyota Scion, police said. The impact drove the Scion into a Honda CR-V that was stopped on Dewey Place. No injuries were reported.
“The confluence of roadways is a disaster waiting to happen,” Councilman Alan Sohn said, referring to that accident. ‘Sadly, it did.”
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Where Queen Anne Road forks for the ramps to Route 4 and the zigzag route motorists need to take to get to Dewey Place has a reputation for being dangerous and confusing, especially for motorists not familiar with the traffic flow.
Most of the accidents detailed in the police study were not as severe as the three-car crash on Dec. 14. Many were rear-end crashes. In one instance, a bicyclist was hit by a car.
The area of the Route 4 interchange at Queen Anne Road is one of the most heavily traveled sections of the township. The road leads to Teaneck High School, three township business districts and the Richard Rodda Community Center.
“It’s a very busy intersection,” said Deputy Mayor Elie Y. Katz. “I can understand how drivers would be overwhelmed.”
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