Falmouth Traffic Advisory Committee decided to recommend break-away chevron signs at the southern end of Maravista Avenue to help prevent motor vehicle operators from driving past the road, onto the beach and into the water.
The committee was asked to look into the intersection of Maravista Avenue and Menauhant Road for improved safety after a motorist drove into the water in April. The subject has been brought to the committee before. In 2009, a Falmouth teenager lost his life at the intersection.
Chevron signs are approximately two-foot-wide yellow signs with a reflective black arrow. If a car hits the sign, it will give way and reduce the impact on the driver.
Besides chevron signs, committee member Ahmed A. Mustafa will research flashing stop signs that he has seen in other towns. The stop signs would be solar-powered and would flash when a driver runs over a trigger before the intersection, he said.
The committee received a suggestion to install rumble strips to wake up drivers who may have fallen asleep. Falmouth Traffic Advisory Committee member Robert G. Williams, an engineer in the Falmouth Department of Public Works, said on Monday, June 16, at a committee meeting that rumble strips are not recommended for residential neighborhoods because they also wake up nearby residents.
The committee will also look at the installation of road markings painted on the pavement that would warn drivers of the dangerous intersection. Co-chairman of the committee, police officer James E. Porter, said that the markings could help but would not solve the issue as most of the accidents involve local residents who know the intersection is already there.
In the years he has been with Falmouth Police Department, since 1999, Lieutenant Brian D. Kinsella, a crash reconstruction specialist, said that he has seen approximately a half-dozen vehicles end up in the water from Maravista Avenue.