How safe is the intersection at Niwot Road and Highway 119?

The tragic death of Niwot resident and Lefty's Pizza owner, Craig "Lefty" Harris, was a rare fatality at the intersection of Niwot Road and Highway 119. Accident data from the Colorado Department of Transportation shows one other fatality since 2005.

"Our safety performance metrics using 2018 - 2020 crash data show that the total frequency of crashes is consistent with similar intersection types at similar traffic volumes," Communications Manager Jared Fiel said. "However, the frequency of fatal and injury crashes was slightly higher than expected."

Harris was driving a passenger van when he was killed September 29 at the intersection of Niwot Road and Hwy 119, also known as the Diagonal Highway.

Colorado State Patrol issued a preliminary report on the accident. "The passenger van driving on Niwot Road failed to yield at the intersection and drove through the light," Colorado State Patrol Master Trooper Gary Cutler said. "The bus basically t-boned them on the driver side coming from 119."

The bus driver was the only person on the bus and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. The driver was a contractor with First Transit. The company is not commenting on her condition.

Accident reconstructionists at CSP will continue to investigate and issue a comprehensive report in coming months, according to Cutler.

Niwot resident Karen Copperberg heard a loud sound from inside her home in the Peppertree neighborhood near the Diagonal on the night of Sept. 29. "By the time I came out, there were all these emergency vehicles and troopers, sheriff, ambulance, fire engines that you could see in the night," she said.

She had noticed that the red light in the right-hand lane of west-bound traffic on Niwot Road at the intersection with the Diagonal Highway was out, and wondered if it contributed to the accident. On Oct. 5, she sent an email to this newspaper, noting that the light had been "been broken for at least 1.5 weeks according to a guy at [Bank of the West] because he noticed that as well."

At the suggestion of this newspaper, Copperberg contacted the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and was advised that the Greeley office was the regional office for the area. She said that a representative told her one other caller had notified them of the outage that day, and that they would look into getting it repaired but could not say when it would be done. After her report, Copperberg noted that the light was fixed the following day, Oct. 6.

The lights facing west-bound traffic on Niwot Road at the intersection with the Diagonal do not change to green at the same time. The western-most lights turn green several seconds before the eastern lights turn green for drivers heading west on Niwot Road.

Copperberg and others have speculated about why Harris would have driven through a red light, and wondered if he saw the green light farther to the west change and drove through the broken red light, which was just black. No one knows what Harris was seeing or how he ended up in the path of the bus, but Copperberg says she is cautious at that intersection, especially when driving on Niwot Road.

"Even if the far light is green, I don't try to hurry through the intersection," she said. "I have counted as many as three to five cars going through the red light. If they are really motoring, they will not even slow down."

Copperberg's caution may be wise, according to CDOT's records. "There is a broadside and rear end pattern at this intersection. A majority of the at-fault vehicles in the broadside crashes were traveling east or west on Niwot Road," Fiel said.

The intersection was reconfigured in 2013. Fiel says the accident rate has gone down slightly since then. There were an average of 14.8 crashes per year in the five years before the reconstruction and 14.2 per year in the five years after.

The Diagonal from Foothills Parkway to Hover Road is scheduled to undergo major changes beginning in 2024 when CDOT begins the Safety and Mobility Improvements Project. "Regional growth and current traffic patterns have led to safety and traffic flow issues," CDOT explains in an overview of the project. (https://www.codot.gov/projects/co119-mobility-design)

The project is intended to make the highway safer and more efficient with these extensive improvements:

• Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

• Synchronized traffic signals that optimize the length of green lights and promote traffic flow.

• Adaptive signal technology that detects when vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists are present and adjusts the signal accordingly.

• Intelligent Transportation Systems that enhance safety and provide real-time information to travelers.

• Signage and pavement markings to make intersections safer and improve multimodal access.

• First steps of a broader vision to identify future pedestrian and bicycle connections to the corridor.

• Physical reconfiguration of the CO 52 intersection.

• Elimination of left turns at CO 119 and Airport Road.

• BRT stations, Park-n-Rides, and bus queue bypass lanes.

• Lighting at intersections, Park-n-Rides, and bus platforms.

The intersection at Niwot Road and Hwy 119 will be changed to accommodate Bus Rapid Transit. The project is currently in the design phase and will go out for bid next year.

In addition to the Safety and Mobility Improvements Project, Fiel says CDOT is currently doing a study of 4,000 intersections across the region that includes Boulder County to see where safety improvements are warranted. Of those, 20 to 25 will be selected.