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COSMOS — Dan Cairl followed the rules and made it a habit to go outside the Cosmos Motorcycle Supply Shop on Milkyway Street whenever he took a smoke break.
That corner gave him a front-row seat to drivers who broke the rules. He witnessed many vehicles passing through a four-way stop at the busy intersection of Minnesota Highways 4 and 7 in the heart of Cosmos, about a block away from the store.
Last fall, he moved his Cosmos Motorcycle Supply store from its downtown location to the northwest corner of the intersection. He said it’s similar to his 50-yard line at a football stadium. He sees every action.
His biggest concern is semi-tractor trailers running through stop signs. “I can hear them saying, ‘Oh, God, they’re not stopping.’ They’re not going to stop at the intersection and zoom in,” he said of what he witnessed.
Tom Cherveny/West Central Tribune
Since moving to the new location, he has three times witnessed vehicles jump the curb and end up in the parking lot in an attempt to avoid a collision with a vehicle passing a stop sign.
“When you hear horns and tires screeching, you’re like, ‘Oh, shit,'” Kjaer said.
Last fall, he just looked outside and saw a car slam into a truck and trailer, sending plastic and metal flying.
In other words, he made it his mission to improve intersection safety.
Tom Cherveny/West Central Tribune
Karl is calling for flashing LED lights to be installed on stop signs at intersections. Currently, flashing red lights are installed above each stop sign, but he doesn’t think it’s enough to get drivers’ attention.
He believes part of the problem is that drivers don’t expect to encounter a stop sign.
Although Hutchinson has a traffic light, he calculated that motorists traveling on Highway 7 from the east have not seen a stop sign for 110 miles. Highway 7 on the west side has a traffic light in Montevideo, but otherwise he has 90 miles between actual stop signs near Ortonville.
Undoubtedly, driver carelessness and poor driving habits are also to blame.
A friend, Ernie Guzman, who visited Mr. Kjaer’s store, shook his head and expressed surprise that motorists did not seem to realize they needed to stop. Kosmos, with a population of 500 people, may be a small town, but drivers who drove through miles of open fields would not miss the town’s water towers and buildings, he noted.
Tom Cherveny/West Central Tribune
According to Minnesota Department of Transportation records, there have only been two accidents involving the Cosmos intersection in the past 10 years. One was a property damage accident or an accident where the fender bent, and his other one was a possible injury, probably a bump or bruise, but no broken bones.
The accident rate does not exceed the value expected from the traffic volume at the intersection. According to information from MnDOT engineer Cody Brand in Willmar, the low accident rate means that accident rates are statistically significant when analyzing how MnDOT allocates available funds for safety projects. It means that it is not.
The daily traffic volume on Route 7 is approximately 2,500 vehicles on the west side of the Cosmos and approximately 3,500 vehicles on the east side. Approximately 1,500 vehicles serve Highway 4 north and south of the community. According to MnDOT, on Highway 7, his daily traffic volume includes about 400 trucks, while on Highway 4, trucks account for 200 to 250 of his daily traffic volume. It occupies the pedestal.
Mr. Brand said he had discussed the request with Mr. Kjaer. He advised that MnDOT is willing to install flashing LED stop signs if the Cosmos community is interested in paying for them.
If there is no reason to believe that flashing LED lights improve safety, MnDOT cannot justify spending the limited funds available to improve safety.
Brand explained that MnDOT has no research or data to show that LED-enhanced stop signs have any significant advantage over the flashing beacons currently installed above stop signs. He explained that a 12-inch beacon is relatively large and taller than a 48-inch stop sign, making it a relatively large sign.
Bland said Kjaer’s concern that drivers are not paying attention to stop signs at Cosmos because of the distance to other stop signs is also a concern for the Department of Defense. Research shows that the longer a driver takes to stop, the more likely they are to miss a stop sign.
Cosmos Mayor Tom McCarthy said local residents welcomed Mr Kjaer’s call for flashing LED stop signs. But the mayor said the city believes it is the state’s responsibility, not the city’s, to install and maintain signs on state highways.
“This is a state highway and they are responsible,” McCarthy said.
Flashing LED illuminated stop signs are estimated to cost about $2,000 each.
Tom Cherveny/West Central Tribune
Kjaer and his wife, Angie, said they agree with the mayor and believe the state should be responsible for the cost and maintenance of flashing LED stop signs.
Dan Kjaer said they initially looked into the possibility of raising money for the sign. He met with the Cosmos Fire Department and other organizations to gain support for the fundraiser, but decided not to proceed with the fundraiser.
Kearl believes the state should pay for the billboards out of the taxes Cosmos residents pay to the state of Minnesota.
He noted that flashing LED signs are increasingly being installed in rural areas to improve safety, and he believes they are more effective than flashing beacons.
He said he recently learned that Renville County added flashing LED stop signs and changed two intersections on county roads from two-way stops to four-way stops for safety reasons.
Kjaer said he remains concerned about the possibility of serious injuries. He also pays attention to pedestrians crossing intersections. He said school buses are dropping off young people downtown, and it’s certainly not unusual for young people to cross intersections on foot.
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