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Fatalities Spur Calls for Traffic Analyst in Montgomery
By Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 23, 2001

The number of pedestrian deaths has topped the number of homicides in Montgomery County for the past two years, but police investigators can't say why. The county's rural roads have seen some of its deadliest accidents, but police can't say how many.

A solution, say traffic officers and a task force on the county's traffic problems, is to set up a data system and hire an analyst to monitor the county's roads.

The recommendation -- included in the task force's report last week -- could cost as little as $50,000 a year to pay the traffic analyst's salary. Traffic police and investigators have advocated the plan for years, but it's never been seriously considered until now.

Sgt. Mike Buchan, head of the police collision reconstruction unit, said his requests for an analyst in the past four or five years went nowhere. Fairfax County, whose demographics are similar to Montgomery's, has had an analyst since 1986. Maryland also uses analysts for its highways.

"How can we be responsible to answer questions when you don't have that data available?" Buchan said. "We're pretty much going on anecdotal information."

Chief Charles A. Moose said that in last year's budget cycle -- his first as the department's chief -- he focused on winning approval for 38 additional patrol officers, as well as school resource officers and detectives for the family services division.

"I don't feel negligent that we don't have" a traffic analyst, Moose said. "There are a lot of competing needs."

He said his first priority was to ensure that the department had enough police officers. "I would never trade a police officer for a traffic analyst," Moose said.

In the past year, though, concerns about the county's roads have taken on new urgency with a rise in pedestrian deaths, as well as some deadly accidents on upcounty roads. Just last week, there was another fatal collision on Muncaster Mills Road, a winding two-lane street that was the scene of a deadly school bus crash last year. On Friday, a Silver Spring woman was seriously injured while crossing Georgia Avenue. Last year, 16 pedestrians died in traffic accidents, while the county recorded 15 homicides.

County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) appointed the traffic task force last summer, and the county and police installed red-light cameras and began a public awareness campaign to stress traffic safety. Recently, Moose and Duncan talked about hiring a traffic analyst.

"If and until policymakers decide something is a priority, it's only logical that something is not a priority," said Duncan spokesman David Weaver, adding that Duncan's office never received a formal request for an analyst. "We've now collectively identified [traffic] as a major problem . . . and we're going to make provisions for this overall issue of traffic and pedestrian safety."

It's unclear what happened to requests for an analyst in earlier budget cycles before Moose became chief in August 1999.

Moose and Duncan discussed the need for a traffic analyst late last year. However, the officials decided to wait for the traffic safety task force's recommendations, which were released last Tuesday, spokesmen for the two men said.

Weaver said the need for a traffic analyst was a "no-brainer" and that it was "almost certain" to be approved. Even so, it could take until the end of the year before an analyst is recruited, hired and trained.

Del. William A. Bronrott (D-Montgomery), who chairs the county's traffic task force, said the panel recommended an analyst because it had trouble getting data and answers to questions when it was studying traffic issues.

Bronrott said he doesn't think it is unusual that Montgomery doesn't have an analyst and noted that there are other counties without one. "I don't think it's appropriate to criticize," he said.

But others are surprised that a county the size of Montgomery has no one to evaluate its traffic data.

The State Highway Administration collects accident reports from each Maryland county and compiles data. However, data can be three to four months behind as the state waits for counties to send reports, said Manu Shah, chief of the analysis division.

While the highway administration tracks state roads and analyzes overall trends, such as the number of accidents involving alcohol, it doesn't have the manpower to do so for county-specific trends or roads, Shah said. He said the state considers the analysis so important that it generates data reports on any traffic issues that could be the subject of legislation in the General Assembly.

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