TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Twin Falls is installing physical dividers on Washington Street near Addison Avenue to stop drivers from making illegal left turns at one of the city's most crash-prone intersections.
The delineators are designed to prevent drivers from crossing a protected median — marked by two sets of double-yellow lines — that it has been illegal to cross for more than 20 years under Idaho law.
Sgt. Ryan Howe, a member of the Strategic Traffic Accident Reduction Team at the Twin Falls Police Department, said the city tried educating the public about the law before turning to physical deterrents.
"It's been illegal to turn left there for over 20 years and what we did is just decided to put up a visual and a physical deterrent to keep that from happening," he said.
Howe said enforcement efforts alone were not enough to prevent crashes at the intersection.
"We've written citations we warn people we've done that for years and it just keep getting crashes and a lot of those crashes are related to the left turn," Howe added. "We wanted to eliminate those crashes or those crashes in that area."
The delineators are not new to Twin Falls. The city has previously installed them at three other locations, and Howe said those installations resulted in fewer crashes caused by illegal left turns.
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