An image of a two-vehicle crash that occurred at the intersection of Allentown and Forty Foot roads in Towamencin Township on June 18, 2019.
The Towamencin Township Planning Commission was updated Monday night by township Community Development Director Jennifer Guckin that PennDOT found, again, no design or safety issues with the controversial Allentown Road curve by Tennis-Lukens Cemetery.
Planning commissioner Joe Vavra had a simple, frustrated response: “Unreal.”
Guckin, whose meeting Monday night was her last as she departs the township for the private sector, said she was asked by the planning commission to provide them with an update. Guckin said the information came third hand, as the police department has been the point of contact with PennDOT.
“They were concerned about the design of Allentown Road because of two accidents. There had been investigations done and both were determined to be user issues,” Guckin said. “One was medical, and one was driver distraction. The design of the road is not causing the accidents.”
On the afternoon of Oct. 3, 2021, a 78-year-old Lansdale woman was killed at Allentown and Forty Foot roads when she was hit by a Toyota Tundra pickup truck
On Nov. 30, 2021, Shayna Bergey, then Chick-fil-A Lansdale Director of IT, suffered injuries in a head-on crash with a minivan at the Allentown Road curve, and succumbed to her injuries days later. Police said the cause of the accident was a diabetic episode that occurred while Bergey was driving.
Days later, on December 8, Towamencin Township Police Chief Tim Troxel told supervisors that alignment, signage, speed limits and traffic volume are not to blame for the accidents, but rather inattentive drivers.
At the Dec. 8 meeting, Troxel reported that there have been 85 crashes since 2019, which equates to 2.3 crashes per month. Of those 85 crashes, 26 were at the Forty Foot Road intersection, 12 were at Thorndale Drive, 11 were at Reinert Road, 17 were at the Derstine Road/Fretz Road intersection, and 19 were mid-block, which is occurring somewhere else along the roadway and not at an intersection.
Troxel said of the 85 crashes, injuries were reported in only nine of them. The other crashes were considered “non-reportable.”
PennDOT and the police classify accidents as either reportable crashes or non-reportable crashes, Troxel said at the December meeting. It comes down to the seriousness of the crash. For a crash to be considered reportable, which police are required by law to forward to PennDOT, one of two criteria must be met: either someone must be injured, or a vehicle involved in the crash was disabled and could not be driven from the scene.
“There were only 38 reportable crashes over that three-year period. 47 were non-reportable, which means someone wasn’t injured or a vehicle wasn’t damaged badly enough that required towing,” Troxel said in December. “So, there is a much higher percent of minor accidents than major accidents. 77 of those 85 crashes didn’t have any injuries reported.”
Of the 47 non-reportable crashes, at least 38 were attributed to inattentiveness or distracted driving, he said. He said six to eight of those 38 crashes were caused by someone sitting behind someone else in traffic and rear-ending them because they thought the driver was going. Other crashes, he said, were caused by drivers backing up into cars, drivers sideswiping vehicles because they were looking at GPS, and drivers not looking at the road.
On Monday night, Vavra said the police continue to monitor the Allentown Road curve.
“At times, police were sitting up where the Sears Hardware was, and they would watch different things and monitor what the situation was,” Vavra said. “There is more of a presence on Allentown Road, pulling trucks over coming off of Derstine (Road).”
Vavra said he holds his breath every time he turns the corner off Forty Foot Road or getting onto Allentown Road “for fear.”
“That woman got killed at the corner, and now we have another lane that’s going to have turns into the shopping center and crossing the sidewalk. It’s getting to a point where I don’t know why people walk on Forty Foot or Allentown Road for that matter,” Vavra said. “Allentown for the most part doesn’t have sidewalks.”
Forty Foot Road has the longest stretch of a pedestrian/bicycle path, which runs from The Shops at Town Square at Allentown and Forty Foot roads to just past Detwiler Road in front of AmeriGas Propane, about 400 feet, or 133 yards, from Towamencin Avenue. The path then starts up again across from Williamsburg Way to Sumneytown Pike.
See also:
Local Woman Killed After Being Struck by Pickup Truck in Towamencin
Victim Dies Following Last Week’s Crash on Allentown Road in Towamencin
Police Responding to Vehicle Crash with Injuries on Allentown Road
Police Officer, Subject in Custody Taken to Hospital Following Wednesday Night Crash in Towamencin
