Silver Lake Daily Newsletter.com

VA taking public comments through Thursday:

Another accident near safety study intersection in Pembroke

• By BRIAN QUINN, bquinn@batavianews.com

Mark Gutman/Daily NewsThere was a two-vehicle accident with minor injuries Tuesday morning at Route 77 and Gabbey Road near the National Veterans Cemetery on Indian Falls Road. Genesee County Sheriffs department along with Mercy EMS responded.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is still taking public comments on a traffic analysis and safety study on intersections near the Western New York National Cemetery, which includes the intersection of State Route 77 and Indian Falls Road.

A two-vehicle accident took place Tuesday morning at the intersection of State Route 77 and Gabbey Road, right across Route 77 from the Route 77-Indian Falls Road intersection, one of the intersections being looked at in the study. The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office and Mercy EMS responded. A female driver suffered minor injury.

The Sheriff’s Office report said a male driving a pickup truck was at the stop sign at Gabbey Road and Route 77 when he was looking north and being waved through by a driver heading south on Route 77. The pickup truck driver said he didn’t see the vehicle driving north on 77 and the northbound vehicle struck the pickup truck, the report said. The driver of the vehicle going north on 77 was transported with minor cuts on her arms.

Veteran advocate Patrick Welch knew about Tuesday’s accident.

“From my perspective, as a retired veteran, it further enhances what we’ve been talking about at that intersection all along — the dangers that exist at that intersection,” he said.

Last September, two people in a passenger vehicle were killed when the vehicle and a tractor-trailer collided at the intersection of Route 77 and Indian Falls Road.

Welch said he submitted comments to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which people can do through Thursday by emailing vacoenvironment@va.gov. The traffic analysis and safety study area includes the intersections of State Route 77 and Indian Falls Road and Indian Falls Road and the driveway into the cemetery.

Welch said his personal feeling is that among the key things in the original draft of the study that was eliminated from the current study draft had to do with general concerns over people leaving the cemetery after attending services there, that their mental acuity may be affected by their state of grieving and the loss they just experienced.

“It can have a detrimental effect at that particular time,” Welch said.

According to the May 3 traffic analysis and safety study draft, the following measures could enhance the safety of State Route 77 and Indian Falls Road:

• Eliminate the existing departure passing zones at the Indian Falls Road intersection;
• Install a flashing intersection control beacon or install sign-mounted flashing warning devices along Route 77 (as an intersection warning) and along Indian Falls Road (stop sign);
• Insert rumble strips on the shoulder and centerline on Route 77;
• Install larger right and left signs with respective posts on Indian Falls Road, including a placard saying “CROSS TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP.”
• Add stop pavement markings on Indian Falls Road;
• Install larger “INTERSECTION” warning signs on Route 77; and
• Install a roundabout at the intersection of Route 77 and Indian Falls Road.