Thank you to everyone who has signed and shared this petition requesting a professional safety review of the intersection of State Route 606 (Weymouth Road) and Stony Hill Road in Hinckley Township.
As part of this effort, a public records request was submitted to Hinckley Township requesting communications between township officials and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) regarding this intersection.
The documents we received provide important context.
ODOT previously reviewed the intersection in 2020 after a request from Hinckley Police Chief David Centner. According to Jeremy J. Adato, P.E., ODOT District 3 Traffic Planning Engineer, ODOT analyzed crash data from 2015–2020 and determined that the intersection exhibited:
“an angle crash pattern caused by vehicles failing to yield when entering/crossing SR-606.”
When the data was later updated with crashes from 2021 to the present, ODOT reported that:
“The same angle crash pattern continues to occur.”
Township records also show that Trustee Monique Marzullo-Ascher contacted ODOT on October 16, 2023 requesting a new traffic study for the intersection because residents continued to report accidents there.
ODOT responded that the intersection had already been studied in 2020 and more recently updated with additional crash data.
To better understand the crash history, we reviewed the ODOT TIMS crash database, which maps the location of reported crashes.
The crash map appears to show several noteworthy patterns.
First, the crashes appear clustered asymmetrically rather than evenly distributed around the intersection. In traffic safety analysis, this type of clustering can sometimes indicate that certain approaches to the intersection may present greater difficulty for drivers than others.
Second, several crashes appear slightly displaced along the SR-606 travel lanes rather than centered exactly at the intersection. In transportation engineering, this can sometimes indicate what are known as late conflict points, where drivers entering from the stop-controlled road misjudge the speed or distance of approaching traffic.
Third, many of the crashes appear aligned along the SR-606 through movement, which may suggest a speed differential or gap-judgment issue between highway traffic and vehicles entering from Stony Hill Road.
Crash reports alone cannot evaluate field conditions such as:
• sight distance
• driver perception and gap judgment
• approach speeds
• intersection geometry
• sign visibility and driver expectancy
These types of factors are typically evaluated through a Road Safety Audit (RSA) — a professional field review conducted by transportation safety specialists.
A Road Safety Audit does not assume that the intersection is unsafe or that a particular solution is required. Instead, it allows engineers to observe conditions directly and determine whether improvements could reduce crash risk.
Given that ODOT’s own correspondence confirms a recurring angle-crash pattern at this intersection, and that crashes continue to occur, a Road Safety Audit would provide an objective professional evaluation of the intersection as it exists today.
The most appropriate way to request such a review is through Hinckley Township leadership working collaboratively with ODOT District 3 Traffic Engineering.
If you support this effort, please consider using the “Contact Decision Makers” option on this petition page to respectfully ask Hinckley Township officials to request a Road Safety Audit of the SR-606 / Stony Hill Road intersection.
Community input helps ensure that traffic safety concerns receive the careful professional review they deserve.
Thank you again to everyone working constructively to improve safety for residents and drivers in Hinckley Township.