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Eighth and Monroe will be a 4-way stop in Hinsdale
A car heading west on Eighth Street in Hinsdale currently does not have to stop at Monroe Street. But village officials decided July 17 four-way stop signs are needed at the intersection. | Kimberly Fornek~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: August 27, 2012 6:09AM
HINSDALE — The intersection of Monroe and Eighth streets will become a four-way stop, in response to the number of accidents that occur there.
“We’ve studied this intersection more than any other intersection in town,” Police Chief Bradley Bloom said.
The Hinsdale Police Department reported one injury and four property damage crashes occurred at the intersection during the 12-month period, ending June 2.
On June 2, a bicyclist heading north was hit by a vehicle going west on Eighth, when the bicyclist did not stop at the stop sign on Monroe, the police reported.
Stop signs on Monroe require northbound and southbound traffic to stop and yield to cars on Eighth Street. The four property damage crashes occurred when vehicles on Monroe did not yield to traffic on Eighth. In one case, the driver tried to stop but his vehicle slid on wet pavement.
“Historically, collisions at the intersection of Monroe and Eighth remain low over a five-year period,” Deputy Chief Mark Wodka wrote in a memorandum to the police chief. But “there has been an increase of collision frequency in the last 12 month(s),” which meets the federal requirements of five or more crashes to warrant a four-way stop at an intersection.
The Police Department studied the intersection seven times before, between 1988 and 2005. The intersection did not warrant a four-way stop, based on the results from those earlier studies, Wodka said.
Village President Thomas Cauley, Jr., however, said people in the village would identify this as among the worst three or four intersections.
The grade of Eighth at times obscures a driver’s view going west, village officials said.
“I do think this is a unique intersection,” Cauley said.
Bloom is concerned that drivers familiar with the area, may come up Eighth, not expecting a stop sign at Monroe, and will either drive through the intersection without stopping or hit their brakes suddenly. If there’s a car behind the first, a rear-end crash may occur.
But unlike right angle collisions, “rear-end accidents seldom result in serious injuries,” Bloom said.
A new sign will be posted alerting drivers on Eighth that a stop sign is ahead.
