The City of Midland’s Traffic Operations Division has released their annual assessment of crashes within the City limits.
Traffic volumes provided in the report represent one 24-hour data collection period that occurred in 2017. Key finding include:
- Total number of reported crashes increased 16%; from 3,228 in 2016 to 3,755 in 2017. This figure is below the peak of 2014 in which 4,013 crashes occurred.
- Midland experienced 18 traffic fatalities in 2017. This is up from 11 in 2016 and below the high of 24 in 2014.
- The intersection with the highest number of crashes was Loop 250 at Midkiff Rd. This was followed by Loop 250 at Big Spring St. and Loop 250 at Midland Dr.
- Overall traffic volume counts for 2017 increased nearly 2% compared to 2016 counts. Volume is rebounding from recent lows and is expected to increase in 2018.
Due to the variations in daily traffic patterns, caution should be exercised in determining trends by comparing counts between multiple years at any specific location. Additionally, the City has changed the way that an “intersection crash” is evaluated by extending the distance from the intersection within which a crash is counted. Therefore, values in this report should not be directly compared against reports issued in past years. However, all historical data presented within this 2017 report has been re-calculated in the same manner for comparison purposes.
The full report can be found here.
###
Media Contact: Elana Ladd, (432) 685-7593