Report finds Koenig Lane a hot spot for traffic crashes involving injuries
Editor’s note: The above video shows KXAN’s morning headlines for Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Data from the Austin Police Department shared with a local personal injury law firm revealed some of the worst intersections in Austin for crashes involving injuries.
Funk and Associates received the dataset and shared it with KXAN Wednesday, which tracked crashes involving injuries from Oct. 15, 2020 to Oct. 21, 2023. The data found Koenig Lane in north Austin had a strong cluster of crashes involving injuries, with 36 reported incidents over the three-year reporting period.
"For public safety records, if an intersection is within 50 feet of another they are added together to create a "cluster," which is represented by the total number of crashes collectively," Funk and Associates said in a release to KXAN.
Broken down, those three main locations accounting for the injury-involved crashes included:
- Eastbound East Koenig Lane and eastbound East U.S. Hwy. 290
- Westbound East Koenig Lane service road and westbound East U.S. Hwy. 290 service road
- Westbound East Koenig Lane and westbound East U.S. Hwy. 290
Neighboring locations also incorporated into the crash data in the report included northbound North I-35 to the La Posada ramp, as well as southbound North I-35 heading southbound to the 53rd Street half-ramp, per the report.
Outside of the Koenig Lane corridor, other high-crash areas with injuries reported included:
- Riverside Drive and U.S. Hwy. 183: 21 crashes
- Ben White Boulevard and I-35: 19 crashes
- Anderson Lane and Northcrest Boulevard/Georgian Drive: 16 crashes
- Ed Bluestein Boulevard and Loyola Lane: 15 crashes
- North Lamar Boulevard and West Rundberg Lane: 15 crashes
- Four Points Drive and North FM 620: 14 crashes
- South First Street and West Stassney Lane: 13 crashes
- Stassney Lane and South Congress Avenue: 13 crashes
- Foremost Drive and South Congress Avenue: 13 crashes
- Mearns Meadow Boulevard and Rutland Drive: 13 crashes
- Barton Springs Road and South First Street: 13 crashes
- East Riverside Drive and Wickersham Lane: 12 crashes
- William Cannon Drive and South Congress Avenue: 12 crashes
- Decker Lake Road and Decker Lane and Loyola Lane: 12 crashes
- East Parmer Lane and East Yager Lane: 12 crashes
- Burton Drive and East Riverside Drive and Tinnin Ford Road: 12 crashes
- Oltorf Street and South Congress Avenue: 12 crashes
- East Anderson Lane (eastbound) and Ed Bluestein Boulevard (southbound): 11 crashes
- South First Street and West William Cannon Drive: 11 crashes
- North Lamar Boulevard and West Powell Lane: 11 crashes
- Barton Springs Road and South Lamar Boulevard: 10 crashes
- Dessau Road and East Braker Lane: 10 crashes
- Riverside Drive and South Congress Avenue: 10 crashes
- Burnet Road and West Braker Lane: 10 crashes
- Canyon Ridge Drive and Tech Ridge Boulevard: 10 crashes
- North Lamar Boulevard and Rutland Drive: 10 crashes
- Guadalupe Street and West Sixth Street: 10 crashes
- Cedar Bend Drive and Metric Boulevard: 10 crashes
Funk and Associates recommended drivers exercise caution while driving, including not speeding through yellow lights and proceeding through intersections with caution after getting the green light, to avoid getting hit by someone running it. They stressed drivers should avoiding using their phones, applying makeup or eating while driving so they aren't distracted.
The use of turn signals, watching for pedestrians crossing the roadway and not tailgating are additional ways to be a cautious and defensive driver.