INDIANAPOLIS — The intersection of Churchman, Perkins, and Southern in Beech Grove is one of the busiest in the city. Around 5,000 cars travel through it every single day.
It used to be one of the most dangerous. The new roundabout is something the city, as well as neighbors, say will make the area safer.
"Dangerous, vicious, just not a safe place,” Sister Mary Luke Jones from Our Lady of Grace Monastery said.
Unsafe is the word commonly used to describe the intersection. Many have a story about the danger of the intersection.
"A Bishop who presided over a ceremony at our place, we bid him adieu, and several minutes later, he showed up back at the door with his white shirt full of blood,” Sister Jones said. “He had an accident right here."
"We nearly got in a crash. The only time this has ever happened while trying to show me their safety concerns on the intersection,” Anna Gremling, with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, said.
If that wasn't enough to convince the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization to update the area's infrastructure, the crash data was.
According to the Beech Grove city engineer, in four years, there were more than 50 crashes at the intersection. Half of those had injuries. One was fatal.
Roundabouts, regardless of shape, are an infrastructure that Beech Grove's engineer says will make the area safer.
"If you think about driving into a roundabout, it doesn't mean you can't have an accident, especially if you have aggressive drivers,” Trent Newport, the City of Beech Grove Engineer, said. “What you do find is that those are going to be fender benders. They are going to be ones that hit at off angle, not a T-bone."
The total cost of the project was $2 million.
