NEW HAVEN, Conn. — New crash data from the UCONN Connecticut Crash Data Repository found that from 2019 to 2023, nearly 900 crashes occurred in a 1.6 mile stretch of roadway on Chapel Street.
From State Street to Ella T. Grasso Blvd., researchers found that three of those crashes turned deadly, and 18 of them ended in serious injuries.
Now, New Haven is getting an $11 million federal grant to make some safety changes to the area through the Chapel Street Safe Streets Project.
“The reality is, that places like New Haven are dangerous, and all too often we lose members of our community because of dangerous driving,” said New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.
Elicker said while the numbers are moving in the right direction, one death on New Haven’s roadways is too many.
Elicker said in 2020, there were 21 traffic-related fatalities in the Elm City. In 2021, 19 people died. In 2022, 16 people died. So far, in 2024, eight people have died on New Haven’s streets in traffic-related incidents.
“If there were a pedestrian murder map for Connecticut, this 1.6 miles would be on it,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, when talking about Chapel Street.
City leaders said after a year and a half of design and planning, they will be upgrading the traffic and pedestrian signals, raising the crosswalks in some intersections, making the sidewalks more ADA accessible, and where necessary, adding bike lanes. They will also be changing some parts of the roadway from one way to a two-way street.
“The goal is to radically change this corridor to make it safer for everyone,” Elicker said.
Elicker said all three of the fatalities happened at the intersection of Sherman and Chapel Streets. As to why that is, Sandeep Aysola said it may be a combination of human error and the outdated infrastructure.
“That’s why we want to correct what we can correct in terms of making these intersections safer by engineering. So that when people, even if they make mistakes, you know, you won’t have fatalities or serious injuries. You want to mitigate or eliminate the affect of crashes,” said Sandeep Aysola, director of the New Haven Deptartment of Transportation and Parking.
Aysola said they plan to put shovels in the ground for the Chapel Street project by 2027. The grant requires that they be finished with the project by 2029, but Elicker said he hopes to get it completed much sooner than that.
In the meantime, those walking and biking on the roads need your help until that happens.
“Think about us more when you’re driving erratically, or just don’t drive erratically. And if you’re that kind of person, don’t drive at all because you’re just putting everybody at risk,” said Jean-Pierre Sanchez-Solis of New Haven.
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Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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