As you hit the roadways, be aware of these 12 crash-prone intersections in the Milwaukee area

There's no shortage of busy and crash-prone intersections in the suburbs of Milwaukee.

But the crossing of Interstate 41/Highway 45 and Capitol Drive in Wauwatosa is at the top of the list.

Now News Group obtained and sifted through data from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to determine the 12 most crash-prone intersections in the suburbs surrounding Milwaukee.

Heading the “Dangerous Dozen” is the multi-tiered convergence of I-41 and Capitol Drive, which amassed 218 crashes in a five-year period from 2012 through 2016. A total of 87 people were injured in those crashes.

The junction is unusual because it has three levels of traffic, said Wayne Higgins, president of Traffic Engineering Services, a traffic engineering consultant firm in Elm Grove.

“It’s a unique intersection because you don’t find many three-tiered intersections,” Higgins said. “You’ve got the through traffic east-west, and then you have all the turning traffic one layer above, then you have the freeway section above that, so there’s plenty of opportunity for confusion by drivers.”

Higgins served as an expert witness for a client who was involved in a crash at the intersection a few years ago and said crashes there tend to fall into two categories.

"I think that it’s more drivers in a hurry and not paying attention to the signal system," Higgins said. "Or on the freeway it’s just because of the backups that go all the way to there and further north in the rush hour."

The tri-level intersection — first constructed in the 1960s — has been the focus of changes over the years to improve driving efficiency and safety, DOT Regional Communications Manager Michael Pyritz said.

The most recent improvements were completed in 2017 and included the addition of a lane to the north and south sides of the interchange’s mid-level ramps.

Before the 2017 project, sideswipe crashes were an issue on the mid-level ramps where traffic makes the transition between I-41 and Capitol Drive, Pyritz said. Lanes added to the ramps helped remedy the issue.

Prior to the 2017 changes, improvements were made to traffic lights, signage and pavement markings.

Other work involved realigning signals, upgrading to LED lighting to improve visibility of the lights and synching the ramp signals.

New post-improvements crash data is pending.

Second on the list is the interchange of I-94 and Highway 164 in Pewaukee, with 161 crashes.

Others in the top five were:

I-94 and Highway 83 in Delafield

Greenfield Avenue and Moorland Road in Brookfield and New Berlin

I-94 and Moorland Road in Brookfield

The majority of the crash-heavy intersections are in Waukesha County — 9 out of 12 — but not all.

Silver Spring and Port Washington

The congested junction of Silver Spring Drive and Port Washington Road near the Bayshore Town Center checks in at No. 6.

Glendale Police Officer Todd Lynch said the sheer volume of vehicles is the main reason for all the collisions.

“That’s by far the busiest intersection in our city, and then you throw in Bayshore Mall, so you get a lot of people, a lot of traffic coming through and anytime you do that you are going to invite more traffic accidents,” Lynch said. “That’s kind of the nature of the beast.”

Lynch said most of the crashes the department sees aren’t necessarily caused by people driving recklessly, but by not paying attention.

“I think that goes to a lot of cellphones and potentially texting while driving, any of those things that are distracting you are just really, really exacerbating the problem,” Lynch said. “They’re just getting people’s attention away from the road and on to something it shouldn’t be, especially when there’s that amount of traffic out there.”

I-94 and Highway 83

The city of Delafield may be best known for its quaint shops and small town feel, but it’s also home to a super-busy meeting of roadways.

The interchange of Interstate 94 and Highway 83 is the third-most crash prone; it’s flanked by Golf Road to the north and Heritage Drive and Hillside Drive to the south.

Delafield Police Capt. Bob Hagen said the convergence of so many roadways — and having the two off-ramps from I-94 not that far away from each other — is one of the factors leading to the high number of collisions.

Hagen said many of the crashes occur at the end of the off-ramps where drivers approach 83 and are looking to turn right.

“The first car will pull out and the second car, instead of making sure that the first one’s gone, they will start looking for traffic right away, and then that first car will see something and cause them to stop and the second car doesn’t realize it and they bump into them,” Hagen said.

Most of those types of crashes are minor, Hagen said.

Others occur when someone’s trying to beat the lights or trying to make a left turn in front of another car, he said.

The seemingly endless array of traffic lights can also lead to driver confusion, Hagen said.

"Let’s say they’re heading north on 83 coming into Delafield and as they’re approaching the intersection for Heritage, they’re actually looking at the lights for the off-ramps and don’t realize the light at Heritage is red," Hagen said. "They see the green light up ahead and they get confused and they’ll drive through the red lights.”

Greenfield and Moorland

The busiest intersection on the list, with 62,200 vehicles a day, is the crossing of West Greenfield Avenue and Moorland Road, which straddles Brookfield and New Berlin.

It comes in at No. 4 intersection on the list and was also the site of a fatal pedestrian accident in June 2006.

Higgins recalled having his own encounter with a pedestrian there that thankfully did not result in a crash.

"I had a pedestrian who was standing on the corner, on their telephone, talking to somebody and then suddenly they started to walk across the street in front of me while I was making a legal right turn on red," Higgins said.

Higgins said over the last few years improvements have been made to the intersection to make the signals more recognizable and the turns more controlled.

"That, too, is an intersection that has a lot of congestion and it is not going to be removed in any way because there isn’t an alternative," he said. "They’ve built as much road capacity as they can without removing the buildings, and that isn’t going to happen."

New Berlin Police Sgt. Dan Hanlon realizes the intersection sees a ton of traffic, but said there don't appear to be any issues with sightlines or intersection design.

"It's not really a factor where we anticipate a lot of things need to be changed there," Hanlon said. "It’s just sheer volume."

108th and Lincoln

The West Allis intersection of 108th Street and Lincoln Avenue comes in at No. 11 with 93 crashes, but it had the second-most number of injuries, with 70 over the five years we examined.

Chris Sohre, traffic investigator with the West Allis Police Department, said it’s one of many busy intersections along Highway 100, a north-south corridor that’s seen increased traffic during the Zoo Interchange project, especially during peak travel times.

“As soon as the freeway gets busy, everyone kind of dumps into the city streets and Highway 100 is a great alternative route to use,” Sohre said. “I think that’s why our crashes are higher on Highway 100 in general, just because of the construction in the area.”

Sohre said the majority of crashes at the intersection are failure to yield the right of way, especially by cars making left-hand turns. But he said that improved after the DOT added new adaptive turn signals, which monitor the flow of traffic.

“That’s helped a lot,” Sohre said.

Asked whether safety is a concern at that intersection, West Allis Mayor Dan Devine said safety everywhere is a concern; he added that he has not gotten a disproportionate amount of complaints from businesses or residents about the crossing.

Devine said nothing about the intersection strikes him as particularly dangerous, but he sees a broader problem. Bad driving.

"I see people running stop signs. I see people speeding, passing in the right lanes," Devine said. "It’s not just in West Allis. It’s everywhere I go."

How we ranked them

Intersections were ranked using crash data obtained from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Safety. Only crashes labeled as “at intersections” were counted. Data included crashes from 2012 through 2016 (the most recent year complete figures were available) for the Now News Group coverage area, including all of Waukesha County, the non-Milwaukee portion of Milwaukee County, and parts of Ozaukee, Washington and Jefferson counties.

Traffic volumes were obtained from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The figures reflect the number of approaching vehicles on an average annual day, in other words, the number of vehicles that drove toward the intersection. For intersections that involved interstate interchanges, through traffic on the interstate was not included, just the ramps and arterial roads.

7 intersection driving tips

You know how to drive through an intersection. Or do you? Following are seven tips and reminders compiled from Drive-Safely.net and other online resources to help you navigate intersections safely.

1. Green doesn’t mean go. When the light turns green, do not just proceed instantly. Look both ways to make sure all traffic has cleared the intersection.

2. Backed up? Never enter an intersection if the traffic is backed up on either side. Wait until it is clear to move through the intersection.

3. Lane-changing. Never change lanes in the middle of an intersection. It’s dangerous and illegal. Wait until you’re safely past the intersection to switch lanes.

4. Four-way stops. At a four-way stop, the vehicle that arrives at the intersection first has the right of way. If both vehicles arrive at the same time, the vehicle on the left must yield to the vehicle on the right.

5. Roundabouts. Remember, the vehicles in the roundabout always have the right of way.

6. Signals down. If the traffic lights at an intersection are not functioning, treat them the way you would treat an intersection with stop signs.

7. Spacing on off-ramps. Many times on off-ramps, the first car at the stop pulls forward and the driver suddenly realizes it is not clear to pull into the highway and slams on the brakes. The car behind them doesn't react fast enough and rear-ends the first car.