Hennepin County Seeks Feedback for Crash-Prone Brooklyn Park Intersection
Every day, more than 33,000 vehicles travel through the intersection of County Road 81 and Interstate 94.
The traffic volume makes it one of the 10 busiest segments of road in Hennepin County.
Brooklyn Park police say it’s also one of the most dangerous.
“We have intersections that have more crashes, but this is definitely one of them that has a high number,” said Inspector Matt Rabe of the Brooklyn Park Police Department.
A public data request submitted to the city of Brooklyn Park found that since 2020, this intersection has been the site of 111 crashes.
Police say distracted driving is part of the reason, with many of the crashes being rear-end collisions. But there’s another issue at play.
“One of them being the flashing yellow arrow,” said Rabe. “I think, sometimes, people don’t understand that doesn’t mean you get to just go.”
During certain times of the day, cars turning onto I-94 East have a flashing yellow arrow. It means they’re supposed to yield to vehicles heading northbound, which are traveling more than 55 miles per hour.
Some of the crashes at the intersection of County Road 81 and I-94 are the result of people failing to yield to oncoming traffic when the yellow arrow is flashing.
But police say yielding doesn’t always happen, which leads to crashes or close calls.
“That particular issue with the flashing yellow arrow, that’s an issue at a number of intersections throughout the state,” said Rabe. “And I think, probably, it’s more about the road design and the intersection design.”
If folks agree that there’s a flaw in the intersection design, Hennepin County wants to know about it.
“That’s right, yeah. We want to hear from people,” said Tom Musick, coordinator of Hennepin County’s Toward Zero Deaths initiative. “We really appreciate when we hear from people about how they use our roadway system.”
Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) is aimed at eliminating severe and fatal crashes on Hennepin County roads through public feedback. People can go to the TZD website, drop a pin on a specific location, and share their safety concerns.
“Being able to get those comments and understand at each location what people are experiencing, then we can take a closer look,” said Musick. “We can look at the data, and we can also make a field visit to that location and just discuss, what are the options here? What can we do to try to improve safety here?”
Whether any changes happen at the County Road 81 and I-94 intersection remains to be seen. In the meantime, police urge drivers to pay attention to their surroundings.
“You shouldn’t be aggressively trying to turn against traffic. Wait until there’s a safe opportunity,” said Rabe. “Stay off your device. Don’t be distracted and pay attention to the flow of traffic.”
Hennepin County says 33,000 vehicles a day pass through the intersection of County Road 81 and I-94.
Related: New Truck to Help Brooklyn Park Police Monitor Distracted Driving
