We continue to get accidents on the Miami Springs Circle. And it’s infuriating because many are preventable with an improved road design.
On Tuesday morning, a woman was seen outside her small sedan after it had been clearly involved in an early morning accident. You could see that airbags had been deployed and debris was strewn throughout the roadway.
We have been critical about this section of the Circle for a long time. The design of the roadway invites accidents. I’m sure you’ve seen people make a right turn onto southbound Curtiss Parkway from the left lane. That’s illegal. You can only make a right turn from the right lane.
The solution is easy. Limit the entry point onto southbound Curtiss Parkway to one lane. There is absolutely, positively no reason to have two lanes as entry points to southbound Curtiss Parkway.
We’ve known this for years, yet nothing changes.
Meanwhile, accidents keep happening in our zip code. What does that mean? Hire insurance rates for everybody. Oh, and who pays for the Miami Springs Police Officers who respond to the accident?
Do road improvements make changes? Ask Village of Virginia Gardens Mayor Spencer Deno. He fought with the FDOT to change the left turn signal from eastbound NW 36th Street onto northbound Curtiss Parkway. Since the changes were made, we’ve seen a reduction in the number of accidents.
Now, the Circle is not controlled by the City of Miami Springs. It’s a County roadway. But we need local leadership, as we saw from VG Mayor Deno, to champion a change to make the Circle safer.
Who is going to step up to champion a safer intersection where the Circle meets southbound Curtiss Parkway?
Does the County share in culpability if a lawyer can prove that the County should have known that this was a poorly designed intersection with a track record of accidents? I don’t have the answer for that, but if you do find yourself in an accident that wasn’t your fault. Make sure to contact an experienced attorney. Fortunately, in Miami Springs we have a great local attorney, Leonardo Concepcion. If you find yourself in accident, you can reach them at 305.791.6529 or visit lconcepcionlaw.com.
It should be noted that the latest (~2-yr.-old) layout of the Miami Springs Circle is excellent in most ways. The County and its appropriate staff should be congratulated and thanked.
Nonetheless, you’re correct that its one imperfection, the tempting-to-use left-most departure lane onto Curtiss Parkway, should be fixed. The long-term solution is to re-route the existing curb to the west to block off that exit lane. A short-term solution is to modify existing striping to do the same thing. That could be completed by a striping crew very inexpensively in about four hours. The City should petition the County to do that immediately and then implement the long-term solution when funding becomes available.
The Circle traffic has always been that way … I learned to drive in the Springs in the early 1960’s and fondly recall learning the lanes & “how to”. Have driven “round-abouts” in Europe since & find those more challenging!
“Poorly designed circle”
Nestor, it’s all the people from Cuba thinking laws don’t apply. The circle is designed properly. It’s PEOPLE who can’t drive.
We shouldn’t have two lanes accessible when you can only make a right turn from the right lane. Turn southbound Curtiss Parkway to a single lane and we can reduce (not eliminate) some of the accidents.
Nestor, from the videos, it looks like the cars coming from Westward Drive are partially to blame and mostly their fault for not waiting. They think that those cars are turning when they’re actually going straight. I’ve been at that intersection hundreds of times and always waited for traffic to clear. Never think a car is going to go straight when they have the option of going straight and running into your car. Doesn’t matter what the marking on the roads are if the people driving don’t follow them.
Hey Jorge, how racists are you?