Jefferson County Supervisors to lower speed limit on Glasgow Road

FAIRFIELD — The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors is hoping to improve safety on a stretch of Glasgow Road outside Fairfield by lowering the speed limit and installing a flashing light at an intersection that has produced a number of accidents in recent years.

The supervisors approved lowering the speed limit from 55 miles per hour to 45 miles per hour on a 2-mile stretch of Glasgow Road beginning near the eastern city limits of Fairfield and extending past its intersection with Osage Avenue, a north-south road just west of Zillman’s Hickory Hills Recreation Area.

Jefferson County Sheriff Bart Richmond told the supervisors that there have been five traffic accidents on Glasgow Road in just over two years, and four of those were related to the intersection with Osage Avenue. Though that section of Glasgow Road observes highway speeds, it has several private driveways and a couple of roads that lead to housing developments.

“In that 2-mile stretch, there are a lot of people entering and exiting the road,” Richmond said.

Richmond said he hopes that lowering the speed limit will reduce the number of traffic accidents and deer collisions. He said he’s heard from motorists that visibility is bad at the intersection with Osage, especially motorists traveling from the north and having to look east, to their left. He also noted that the shoulder is narrow in that stretch of Glasgow.

At the same time, Richmond said that “driver error” was sometimes the cause of the accidents along Glasgow Road.

“I’m not going to blame the intersection for all the accidents,” he said. “One of them was a single vehicle accident. For another, we had a car that was coming from town, and the visibility was great that day. You could see the other way with no problem, so I can’t say they’re all related to the intersection.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com