Traffic waits for the light on Santiam Highway at Waverly Drive on Friday afternoon, March 27, 2026. Thirteen crashes happened here last year.
Does the Albany street system have intersections that are more dangerous than others? Dumb question, you say, intersections don’t do anything to present a danger. They just sit there, waiting for drivers to make a mistake.
Still, some intersections are the scenes of automobile crashes more often than others. The most plausible reason is that those are locations where traffic is heaviest during parts of the day.
The Albany police say in their annual crime analysis report for 2025 that the top four locations for crashes were these:
— Waverly Drive and Santiam Highway, 13 crashes.
— 34th Avenue and Pacific Boulevard, also 13.
— 14th Avenue and Geary Street, 10.
— 2500 Santiam Highway, 9.
The last one is an address on Santiam just west of the intersection with Waverly Drive.
“The area around Waverly and Santiam is collision prone,” Police Chief Marcia Harnden told me in an email.”We do block ranges due to many collisions occurring just outside the intersection.”
Two of the sites on this short list are not full intersections. Both 34th/Pacific and 14th/Geary are T-intersections. It’s not clear why collisions there should be that frequent.
Other than a lot of traffic during the peak hours, and maybe people getting impatient in heavy traffic, I have no idea why last year crashes happened at these locations more often than anywhere else in town. (hh)
Here are the eastbound lanes of Santiam Highway just west of Waverly Drive. Nine crashes happened on this block last year.
Instead of saying “I have no idea why”, please do a study of how these intersections function. I drive through Waverly and Santiam almost daily. Ask me. I have experience and observations.
What is the problem at that intersection, do you think?
Well Monica maybe you could write your own blog about it
Seems like there are a lot of accidents at 9th and Hill also.
So while we are on the topic of traffic, I was going downtown the other day, and noticed that when the fire station needs to alert people that they are moving fire trucks out of the station they use flashing lights. Then it struck me well my goodness if fire stations use flashing lights they must think it’s safer. So if the school districts really thought that it would be a safety situation they would use flashing lights rather than speed traps. Maybe that’s just me.
It’s not just you. I guess that the answer lies in the membership of the City government. Changes are needed.
I hope Monica Weber answers Hasso’s question. While waiting to read about that, I will say that both of those intersections are busy all the time. Well, I don’t know about the wee hours of the morning, as I’m not out and about during those hours. But, from probably 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. (the next morning) those intersections are too busy. And, all the younger people (I’d define that as 50 and under) are distracted by their phones and impatient and traveling too fast and/or running a light. That is, they are jumping the gun and in the intersection when they shouldn’t be.
Thought of something. Walmart being on the east side of the I-5 overpass that is fed by Santiam Highway is a big part of the reason there are so many crashes at Santiam and Waverly. Because there is no reasonable way for most Albany residents to get to Walmart without going through Santiam and Waverly intersection. Those of us who do not do all of our shopping at Walmart still shop at Walmart quite a bit. I get bird food there. It is too high-priced at Fred Meyer.
Bird seed is reasonably priced at both Bi Mart and Cool’s Feed store. Both on the ‘downtown’ side of Waverly.
Alot of people are in too big of a hurry, drive too fast,
…and have their noses stuck in their cell phones!
They almost “deserve” to have an accident if they are driving and have their nose in a cell phone. That’s illegal so might as well make it costly for them since they won’t get pulled over and cited for doing it.
If people were smart (and that’s a long shot), they would ease up on the gas pedal especially with the price of gas.
I remember before the Pacific/9th couplet was constructed. I remember seeing the renderings of the “new” couplet and thinking, “oh boy, this is going to be interesting.” Of course, it all boils down to the person behind the wheel and decisions they have to make based on traffic flow, signals, when the light turns yellow, etc. Add in mobile devices, GPS squawking you, radio, and today computer monitors (think Tesla).
Haven’t been at the Waverly-Santiam intersection for a while. When I drove there I noticed making a left turn going from Waverly to Santiam the light only gives enough time for one car and it’s turning yellow before that car gets through. I avoid that intersection for that reason.
How do you avoid Santiam and Waverly intersection? That is, how does one get to Home Depot, Abby’s Pizza, Honda place, etc., etc. without using Santiam and Waverly intersection. And the dumb Albany Council approved building a bunch of houses and apartments and a Town Center (whatever in the hell that turns out to be) out by Walmart!!!
So, the crashes at Santiam and Waverly will eventually be daily occurrences with some days have more than one crash.
One Hundred percent people are not paying attention and RUNNING RED LIGHTS!!!
Boring….
This proves the traffic cams are for revenue.
Albany is shameful !
Well this question was made for me….The 22 million dollar road is not on the list….Just
spend the money for safe roads…22 million is the magic number…oh my brick road