The traffic consultant of Steven Venincasa and James Venincasa has presented an updated Traffic Impact Study dated February 2024 for their proposed Chapter 40B Rice Pond Village project, highlighting a continued deficiency in reliable information credibility. For this blog post we’ll focus on the massDOT Crash Data information that is publicly available.

In the traffic consulant’s Traffic Impact Study dated September 2022, they state:

“Accidents: The latest accident data compiled by the massDOT were obtained and reviewed for a four-year period of 2018-2021. This review revealed that no accidents were reported for any of these intersections during this four-year period. Therefore, it is concluded that no safety issues could be associated with these intersections. There was one accident recorded in front of 9 Rice Road that is approximately 400’ west of the proposed site driveway. This accident occurred on March 17, 2019, at 3:00 PM and it involved a single vehicle backing out and hitting a parked car. This accident involved no injuries.”

And in February 2024, they state:

“Accidents: The latest accident data compiled by the massDOT were obtained and reviewed for an eight-year period of January 1, 2016, through January 1, 2024. This review revealed that only one accident was reported at the intersection of Rice Road and Providence Street. It was a rear-end type accident involving a vehicle traveling eastbound waiting to turn right onto Providence Street and was rear-ended by a second vehicle. It occurred on December 11, 2019, at 7:21 PM, and it was raining. This accident involved property damage only. Using the new turning movement counts compiled during traffic surveys of these intersections, an accident rate was calculated in accidents per million vehicles entering the intersection of Rice Road and Providence Street. Utilizing the massDOT prescribed methodology, the accident rate for this intersection was calculated at 0.05, which is significantly lower than the massDOT’s latest available rate of 0.61 for unsignalized intersections on roadways in District 3 of the massDOT in which the town of Millbury is located. A copy of the accident rate calculation sheet is included in the Technical Appendix section of this report. Also included in the Technical Appendix section of this report is a copy of the massDOT Average Crash Rates for signalized and unsignalized intersections throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Finally, there was one more accident recorded in front of 9 Rice Road that is approximately 400’ west of the proposed site driveway. This accident occurred on March 17, 2019, at 3:00 PM and it involved a single vehicle backing out and hitting a parked car. This accident involved no injuries.”

massDOT Crash Data

We gathered data from the massDOT Crash Data for the identical timeframe mentioned in the traffic consultant's February 2024 updated Traffic Impact Study by the developer. Within a 0.25-mile (1,320-foot) radius of the entrance to their proposed project site at 17 Rice Road in Millbury, Massachusetts, we found 12 recorded accidents near the intersection of Rice Road and Thomas Hill Road.

Among these incidents, one resulted in a fatality on South Main Street near the Rice Road junction, where speed was a contributing factor. Moreover, another collision occurred involving the same utility pole at that precise location. Notably, there are no speed limit signs at or near the intersections on either end of Rice Road or along Rice Road itself. It's worth noting that multiple rear-end collisions have occurred near the intersection of Providence Street and Rice Road. This underscores the urgency of reconfiguring this intersection to incorporate turning lanes in both directions and, at the very least, installing traffic control signs.

How could a traffic engineer overlook such readily available information? Why were these accidents excluded from their Traffic Impact Study? This information has been publicly documented in the town's records, easily accessible to developers and their team. It seems as though they're not putting in much effort, or perhaps they believe we won't verify the information provided by the developer, their team, and consultants.

The latest update to their Traffic Impact Study contains additional inconsistencies, including the reference to outdated information such as the zoning district being Residence-I instead of Suburban-II, however, we will delve into these discrepancies another time.

The next public hearing for the proposed Chapter 40B Rice Pond Village project will be hosted by the Millbury Board of Appeals. It is scheduled for Wednesday, February 28, 2024, starting at 7:00 PM. The venue for this event will be at the Millbury Senior Center located at 1 River Street in Millbury, Massachusetts.