Around we go: St. John's councillor wants city to take another crack at Rawlins Cross

St. John's city councillor Sandy Hickman is calling on his fellow councillors to rethink their decision to nix a makeshift traffic circle at Rawlins Cross.

Hickman's comments come after the thirdcar crashin the six weeks since traffic lights were reinstalled at the notorious St. John's intersection.

"I am heartbroken there have been three accidents already," Hickman said."Any one of those could have been fatal. Certainly one vehicle ended up on thesidewalk and could have taken out a pedestrian."

Council voted 7-4 against keeping the pilot project traffic circle, citing concerns raised by some downtown residents who circulated a petition about pedestrian safety.

Hickman was one of the four dissenting voters, and as the lead councillor on traffic issues, he's not satisfied with letting the issue rest.

"I really hope we can review this at council. I'm going to recommend that council review the decision and allow our staff to do research on ways they can reconfigure the intersections ... for pedestrian safety and as well allowing a freer flow of traffic, which [the pilot project] was designed to do."

Hickman said the citycould have added safety features to the pilot project, had council not voted down the idea based on public pressure.

The decision flew in the face of statistics, which showed crashes were down 53 per cent over the course of the project.

Latest incident

For the second time in five days,first responders were called to Rawlins Cross in downtown St. John's on Monday for twisted metal and smashed bumpers.

A mid-sized SUV and a Budgen's Taxi sedan collided in the middle of the intersection on Military Road. Police, paramedics and firefighters were on scene just after 10 a.m.

The crash comes five days after another SUV was involved in an accident at Rawlins Cross.

There have been at least three multi-vehicle collisions since the intersection was changed from a traffic circle to traffic lights on May 15.

The intersection has long been notorious in St. John's due to itspropensity for collisions. It's not known if anybody was injured in Monday's accident.

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