Residents want improved safety at Route 24, Legion Road intersection

While state studies in recent years have not proven a need for a traffic light at Route 24 and Legion Road near Millsboro, members of the nearby American Legion Post 28 and neighbors fear for their safety and are calling for action. 

“Leaving here in the afternoon is like a time bomb,” said Post 28 Commander Joe Brown, who is at the American Legion five or six days a week. “I don’t care what the results say. On a Thursday night when we have Hot Spots and there’s 200 people playing or on Friday and Saturday night when we have music and people are leaving at 10 or 11, it’s dangerous.”

“Every time I sit out there on [Route] 24 to turn into Legion Road, I tense up and pray that somebody isn’t going to hit me,” said Cindy Phillips, a 24-year member of the American Legion and frequent visitor. “It doesn’t matter what time of the day or night it is.”

Brown and Phillips were among about 150 people who attended a July 10 public meeting organized by the American Legion and Rep. Jeff Hilovsky, R-Long Neck, to make their case. Representatives of the Delaware Department of Transportation and state police answered questions.

Jonathan Derryberry, a DelDOT traffic studies engineer, noted the intersection does not meet the criteria for the installation of a traffic light.

“I came here this morning to have a discussion with you guys,” Derryberry said. “I’d love to hear real, local information. I’m a traffic engineer … I’m the traffic studies engineer in Sussex County, so I’m down here quite a bit. But it’s always good to have the local knowledge from the residents who travel this intersection every day.” 

Another traffic study is in progress and, he said, he wanted to hear about any problems that may have been missed. DelDOT has visited the area, reviewed housing developments nearby, and past traffic and crash data, and it collected additional turning movement counts at the intersection June 19 and 21.

Residents questioned whether state traffic counts were conducted when there are the most travelers during the summer beach season. They also said housing developments in the area are growing, and the traffic will only get worse.

Hilovsky grew up in the area and remembers riding his bike along Legion Road when it was little more than a path, easily crossing Route 24 at the intersection. He said he wouldn’t dare try that today. 

The American Legion has about 5,000 members, and hosts about 100 events and activities each month, including some that draw up to 2,000 people. That activity, growing residential neighborhoods in the area and summer beach tourism generate traffic that makes the intersection of Route 24 and Legion Road particularly dangerous, members and others said. 

“The legion has become the community center for this area,” Hilovsky said.

The group gathered 1,300 signatures in a binder and about 350 more online in 90 days calling on the state to improve safety at the intersection.

“There needs to be some kind of fix at this intersection,” said Riley Repko, an American Legion member from Lewes who moderated the meeting. “This is our expectation.”

Peninsula Lakes resident Bob Verdugo presented photos showing vehicles at the intersection to illustrate the hazards and state accident data there, showing 51 reported accidents in the last 10 years, including some with injuries and one fatality.

Suggestions by residents include a traffic light, three-way stop signs, lowering the speed limit from 50 mph to 35 mph, adding turning lanes, adjusting timing of nearby traffic lights and removing an old bus shelter that blocks drivers’ visibility when pulling out of Legion Road.

Derryberry pointed out that traffic lights and lower speed limits can actually cause more accidents. He noted a nearby intersection with a light has far more crashes.

Delaware State Police Lt. Mark Little said DSP took its own traffic survey recently, and counted 37,320 vehicles entering and leaving Legion Road over almost 12 days.

They also compared crash data at the Route 24 intersections with Oak Orchard and Legion roads. They also reviewed 19 crashes at Legion Road in the past five years, five of them with injuries. There were 97 crashes at Oak Orchard Road, which has a traffic light, in that same period.

“We support anything that’s going to make it safer for anyone that’s getting in and out of this intersection, but one concern that we have is that we’re going to get a lot of related crashes because of the traffic light,” Little said.

There has been one crash with an injury at the intersection in the past five years, compared with 12 at the Route 24 intersection with Mount Joy and Oak Orchard roads, where there is a traffic light, in the same period, said Delaware State Police Capt. Gerald Windish.

“One thing that was evident today was the passion in this room to get something done,” Hilovsky said. “I promise you, I will not let this die. Something’s going to happen, and it’ll be for the better. We’ll have to figure out what the best way to do this is, and we’ll make it happen.”