Safety
experts to scrutinize Maine Street -
Brunswick's hazardous street draws federal attention
By Robert Greene
Times Record Staff
BRUNSWICK -- Crossing Maine Street is so dangerous that when the federal government
decided to send pedestrian safety experts to towns with serious traffic problems,
Brunswick was one of the first places they considered.
Police Chief Jerry Hinton said an official from the Department of Transportation called
him this week to say, "I'm putting Brunswick high on the list, if not on a list of
its own, because of the wideness of Maine Street and two deaths and the series of
accidents it's had over the years."
Since 1989, there have been 30 accidents where a motor vehicle struck down a pedestrian
on or near Maine Street, which is nearly 50-feet wide. Two people have died, dozens of
others have suffered broken bones and bruises.
The street is lined on both sides with shops, restaurants and offices and shoppers must
cross four lines of busy traffic to get from one store to the next.
To make it safer, the town has tried painting the crosswalks fluorescent green, putting
up orange barrels in the middle of the road and increasing police patrols. One town
councilor, Faith Moll, even spent nearly $800 of her own money to print up bright yellow
flyers for people to hold up as they attempt to cross the street, which floods with
traffic during the morning and afternoon rush hours.
Despite these efforts, another woman was hit last month while trying to cross the
street. She was sent to the hospital in critical condition.
Hinton said he is not sure exactly how the federal program, called Pedestrian Road
Show, will work.
If Brunswick is chosen, a safety expert will come to town as soon as next month.
He'll spend a day with local leaders collecting information and then he'll present a
four-hour workshop on how to organize a local committee to work with downtown merchants,
workers and shoppers to make Maine Street safer.
The expert might also help the town find other federal programs that give money for
studies and even building projects, such as median strips, or pedestrian overpasses.
- from Brunswick Times Record, April 1997
U.S. Department of Transportation