LEXINGTON, Ky. — Traffic and safety leaders in Lexington are looking to maintain a yearly decline in both injury and fatal car accidents in the new year.
David Filiatreau is a Lexington traffic engineer. He’s stationed close to one of downtown’s two-way intersections between the public library and the University of Kentucky.
“Generally, that creates a lot of students and people moving on bikes and things like that, which is a good sign of a healthy city but can be interesting to work with when conflicts arise.”
It’s also where he saw some problems with the traffic pattern and worked to come up with solutions to keep drivers and pedestrians safe.
His team has since made adjustments to increase the visibility of the traffic signals at this intersection.
As the state’s second-largest city, challenges include congested roads, collisions at intersections, and even pedestrian-related accidents.
According to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Fayette County had 37 fatal collisions in 2024, a drop from 49 in 2023.
Lt. Jeremiah Davis with the Lexington Police Department’s traffic safety team says it can stem from several reasons.
“There are far more collisions involving either single motor vehicles or two or three or multiple motor vehicles than there are motor vehicles and pedestrians. The collisions involving motor vehicles and pedestrians are significant,“ Davis said.
Other challenges include red light running, speeding, distracted, and impaired driving.
Davis added, “Everybody needs to be courteous of those who are traveling around them, and everybody needs to allow for a little extra time, because not always our trips go as planned. Sometimes there’s construction in the way. Sometimes you may run into someone that’s been involved in a collision and then the road being knocked down to one lane.”
Since last year, the city has installed new roundabouts, and some neighborhoods have crosswalks.
“For really most going forward and a lot of transportation, especially when it relates to vehicles, it’s reducing speeds,” he explained. “So projects that focus on doing that, there’s a new roundabout going in a Wilson Downing that has been shown to reduce injury collisions.”
Filiatreau says it’s about preventing both injury and fatal incidents.
“So that’s really what the focus is moving from trying to solve all crashes to injury collisions because those are the ones that obviously can change lives,” Filiatreau said.
Here is a snapshot of collisions in Lexington for 2023 and 2024.
Leaders encourage drivers, cyclists, and commuters to be mindful in the year ahead.
To learn about crash information anywhere in Kentucky, Kentucky State Police has set up a online dashboard.