HOUSTON, Texas — KHOU 11 News heard your concerns about the intersection of Wednesday's deadly crash.
Investigators said the driver was intoxicated, but a lot of viewers said they think the intersection is just plain dangerous. Dozens of comments came to the KHOU Facebook page about it.
It’s the question we have after any accident - what could’ve been done to prevent it?
We want to address your concerns about the intersection itself: Is it dangerous?
The Texas Department of Transportation said it’s not an easy question to answer.
Let’s look at the data:
TxDOT numbers show over the past 10 years. From 2010 until now, there have been roughly 592 accidents at Antoine Drive and Beltway 8 - three of those crashes were deadly and 19 of them involved alcohol.
As for how busy it is, in 2016, the average traffic for the intersection was about 22,609 cars a day.
But let’s look at an intersection with more than double the traffic.
The intersection of Bissonnet Street at the West Sam Houston Parkway saw 1,153 crashes from 2010 until now, but that intersection can see up to 52,376 cars a day.
So while that intersection has nearly double the number of crashes, there’s also nearly double the amount of traffic.
The intersection of the Sam Houston Parkway at Westheimer Road had fewer accidents, about 800 in 10 years, but their traffic flow is the heaviest among the ones we've looked at, with over 70,000 cars a day.
When you look at the intersection of Beltway 8 at Bammel Road, which is one exit away from the Antoine Drive intersection, also has about 22,852 cars coming through a day, and their number of accidents is not much lower than the number at Antoine Drive. There were 565 in a 10-year period.
It’s hard to say if one intersection is more dangerous than another.
TxDOT said they're always looking at the data, the number of crashes and their causes, trying to identify ways to make driving safer.
If you want to tell them about an intersection you’re worried about, fill out this contact form.
If the intersection is within the city of Houston, call 311.