Motor Vehicle Accidents Rise Over Past Year

From 2009 to 2010, the number of accidents in the Town of Andover went up by 21, a 2.3 percent jump from 903 to 924. Since 2005, however, accidents have seemed to stabilize.

Andover Police do not keep a record of accidents by intersection but Police Lt. John Pathiakis provided some anecdotal evidence about active intersections throughout town.  He said that, obviously, the main roads see much more traffic and, therefore, accident numbers are higher on them.

Pathiakis said that the following are the top five accident-prone intersections in Andover:

• Lowell Street and North Main Street (Route 133 and Route 28)
• Dascomb Road and Frontage Road
• Lowell Street and Lovejoy Road
• River Road and Interstate 93
• River Road from the Greater Lawrence Technical High School to the Lawrence line.

The Police records department also provided the top three accident-prone streets in the last four months of 2010.

• In September: North Main, Lowell Street, Shawsheen Road.
• In October: River Road, Lowell Streeet, Main Street.
• In November: North Main Street, Dascomb Road, River Road.
• In December: Central Street, Dascomb Road, River Road.

Over the past six years, motor vehicle accidents seem to be stabilizing between 1,000 and 900 per year. Here are the annual numbner of accidents from 2005 to 2010.