A truck heading south on state Route 133 crosses state Route 156 in Jay, an intersection commonly known as Beans Corner. The Maine Department of Transportation will change the intersection from a two-way stop to a four-way stop May 13. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal
JAY — The intersection of state Routes 133 and 156, known locally as Beans Corner, will change from a two-way stop to a four-way stop May 13.
It is the site of the most right-angle crashes in the state with 28 in the past five years, Dennis Emidy, a Maine Department of Transportation highway safety engineer, told the Select Board in 2023. The posted speed limit for the area is 35 miles per hour.
In a 10-year period there were 75 crashes at the intersection of which 69 (92%) of the crashes were angle crashes, Emidy wrote in an email on Thursday.
The angle crashes were vehicles exiting Route 156 and being broadsided by vehicles on Route 133. Angle type crashes at high speed are one of the worse types of crashes which often result in fatalities or injuries. In the 10 years there has been 72 injuries thankfully there hasn’t been any fatal but there have been 2 serious injuries, 26 minor injuries and 44 complaints of injures. There are more injuries at this location than the state average for a similar type of intersection at 35 mph, he wrote.
The intersection is also currently a high crash location and it’s been one 17 times since 2013, according to Emidy. A high crash location is when there are eight crashes or more in a three-year period and where “we experience more crashes than we would expect based upon the volume and type for a similar intersection, Emidy wrote.
“In installing an all-way stop, we have found significant reductions in total crashes but most important the reduction of people getting injured,” according to Emidy.
For example, the all-way stop that state MDOT installed in Casco at the intersection of state routes 11 and 121 has seen a 64% reduction in total crashes, a 67% reduction in injury crashes and a 100% reduction in fatal and serious injuries in the three years before and after the conversion,” Emery said.
“We have found similar results at other locations where we converted to an all-way stop where there were significant angle crashes,” he said.
The state highway department put up digital message signs Monday warning of a new traffic pattern on May 13.
The MDOT gave a presentation to selectpersons in March 2023 about options to try to reduce crashes and crashes with injuries at the intersection. There are red and yellow flashing lights signaling the stop on both sides of the road for state Route 156. There are yellow caution flashing lights on the state Route 133 side. There are also stops signs and flashing stop signs at each of the two ends of the streets on Route 156.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
