HURRICANE, Utah (ABC4) – The Hurricane City Police Department is reporting 14 accidents on State Route 9, one of the main gateways for Zion National Park– just in the last month. Now officers have warning signs set up along the state road, in hopes to get drivers to slow down.
“There’s no rule about what you’re supposed to do at a yellow light, you know the yellow light is just telling you the red light is coming so some drivers take it as ‘okay I’m going to slow down and stop’ and others take it as ‘I’m going to hurry and try to make it through that yellow light’,” says officer Dan Raddatz of Hurricane PD.
Raddatz says he decided to put up signage after witnessing three serious crashes just in the last couple of weeks.
“It’s ended up causing some pretty significant collisions, one car ended up rolling onto its side due to the impact of the collision but in each instance, drivers ended up going to the hospital,” he says.
Raddatz says he even timed these stoplights, to see how long drivers have to wait.
“On average on any of these lights, if you’re traveling on state street, you might have to wait another 30 seconds you know at the most, per light,” he says.
Adding drivers are better off just slowing down when they see a yellow light.
“When these people are involved in accidents, even if it’s not a serious accident, you’re going to be there probably close to an hour while we get it cleaned up and get you paper work,” adds Raddatz.
