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                Street Lights at Urban and Rural Intersections Reduce Late-Night/Early Morning Intersection Crashes in Minnesota
**Publication Year:** 
            2010
    
        Original publication: Reducing Late-Night/Early Morning Intersection Crashes by Providing Lighting (FHWA-SA-09-017) (PDF, 467kB)

More than 40 percent of intersection fatalities occur during late-night/early-morning hours. Further, the crash fatality rate during the late-night/early-morning hours is as much as three times greater than during the day *(Traffic Safety Facts, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2008).* Minnesota and Kentucky were concerned about the high number of crashes at some of their intersections during late-night/early-morning hours.

Recognizing that poor visibility at intersections during late-night/early-morning hours can cause crashes, the States of Minnesota and Kentucky installed lighting at 55 intersections experiencing a high incidence of crashes.
"Photograph of a stop sign illuminated by a street light"Figure 1:   Evening view of stop sign at intersection*Source: Photo by April Armstrong (used with permission)*

Key Accomplishments

As the states' experience demonstrates, providing lighting can effectively improve safety and reduce traffic crashes and their resulting injuries and/or fatalities during late-night/early-morning hours.

Results

The enhanced countermeasure reduced overall late-night/early-morning crashes across these intersections by a weighted average of 35 percent.

Contact

Susan Zarling
Office of Traffic Safety
Minnesota Department of Transportationsusan.zarling@state.mn.us U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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