Michael Baker

Journ 271

Sept 27, 2012

Traffic Accident Rate

Words 417

            OXFORD, Miss. – Car accidents on the campus of the University of Mississippi are something that the local authorities say is unavoidable, but happening at too fast of a pace. On average here in town accidents whether involving students or Oxford civilians is 5 a month. That means roughly 1 per week which in any town would be viewed as too many.

            Sergeant Knight of the Oxford police department directly related the spike in automobile accidents to the increased number of students and civilians in Lafayette County this semester.

“Whenever you have plans to accept more students into a town that hasn’t expanded as far as land goes, it is going to become crowded” said Knight. “The city council has heard this issue and is developing possible resolutions, but right now this is how it is.”

Alcohol doesn’t play as big of a role as most would probably think of a college campus. According to accidentin.com only 30 percent of car wrecks in town involve alcohol. The majority of the accidents can be attributed to attention span. Oxford PD has documentation backing the fact that most of the wrecks also occur between 2:45pm and 7pm, the hours in which classes and campus starts to die down every day. Traffic is heavy around those times usually bumper to bumper on Jackson ave.

“I’ve had two accidents since 2008 on Jackson in stand still traffic” said University of Ole Miss senior, Elijah Epperson. “Both times I was rear ended by students who just weren’t paying attention, no cell phone or anything.”

The most accidents are reported to happen at the highway 6 exit on the part that merges into Jackson ave. There is a yield sign and a slight median separating the two merging lanes but it’s proved to be hardly enough for accident prevention, Two accidents occurred at this spot earlier this month. Neither involved alcohol, but both included students, which are not totally faulted for the large percentage of accidents that take place here in Oxford, but are responsible for the majority of the wrecks. Prevention courses and awareness meetings are amongst the list of possible future resolutions constructed by the Oxford city council.

Sources.

Elijah Epperson 731-571-4362

OPD Officer Ron Knight 662 816 8960