As the Route 309 corridor in Rush Township continues to evolve, its growth is sometimes accompanied by growing pains.

The increased traffic has meant an increase in crashes, including some involving multiple vehicles and severe injuries, even fatalities.There are four "trouble" intersections along Route 309, also called Claremont Avenue, within Rush Township: Route 54, Lincoln Drive, Tide Road (Walmart) and Fairview Street/Ben Titus Road.This past weekend, a car crossed the median on Route 309 near Hometown and smashed head-on into an oncoming passenger van.Eleven people were injured.Then, two more crashes within the next 12 hours occurred at the same general location on the same road.In October, Andrew Woytko, 83, of Hazle Township, was killed in a crash near the Lincoln Drive intersection.In November, Raymond Poreco, 76, of Hometown, was killed in a crash leaving a parking area just north of the Ben Titus Road. In August, six people were injured in a collision at Tide Road.Solution?Rush Township Police Sgt. Duane Frederick said multiple issues contribute to the crashes, such as speed, confusion over traffic signals and motorists entering or exiting 309 at places where the line of sight is not sufficient.Frederick is frustrated by the continuing problems at the Tide Road intersection, where fender benders and serious crashes are commonplace. Motorists heading south on Route 309 and turning left at that intersection have a left-turn arrow.While the left-turn arrow for southbound traffic is green to enter Tide Road from Route 309, the traffic light for northbound traffic on Route 309 is red. However, motorists northbound on 309 can enter Tide Road via a ramp. When the left-turn arrow ends, motorists heading both north and south on 309 have green lights."The crashes happen either because somebody making the left doesn't realize that traffic can still enter the same road (Tide Road) from the other side," Frederick said. "Or people who were waiting to turn left will still turn left against oncoming traffic, even though the turn arrow has ended."The Lincoln Drive intersection is just north of the Tide Road intersection. Traffic coming southbound into that area goes through a dip on Route 309, which cuts into the line of sight for motorists trying to exit Lincoln Drive in either direction onto 309.There is no traffic signal at Lincoln Drive, which has become busier with the popularity of Basile's Restaurant, an Italian eatery located at the site of a former truck stop.From Ben Titus Road to Tide Road, Route 309 has a concrete median.There is a cutout for motorists exiting Lincoln Drive and heading north; motorists leaving the Basile's parking lot and attempting to head north are stopped by the median.The speed limit in the area is a bit of an oddity heading north from Tide Road it's 45 mph; heading south in the same area, it's 50 mph.PennDOT responseRon Young, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said some of the solutions to issues on Route 309 may be relatively inexpensive.Young embarked on a "video tour" of the route in order to have the visual reality of the intersections.Young said that having different speed limits in different directions on the same stretch of road isn't unusual. He suggested that township officials consider low-cost changes such as line painting, additional signage and rumble strips."We (PennDOT) don't just go into an area and make changes, we need to hear from local officials," Young said. "Then we can look into it and see if the request is warranted."Young said that reducing speed limits isn't always the answer."Even when speed limits are reduced, that doesn't mean people will slow down," Young said. "It's tough for a small police force to concentrate all its resources to catch speeders in certain areas."Young pointed out that although Route 309 is a state road, Rush Township owns the traffic signals. The township can revisit its permit for the traffic signal and request a modification from PennDOT, he said.That's what Rush Township Supervisor Robert Leibensperger did regarding the Route 54 intersection.PennDOT responded with a traffic study, and then adjusting the timing of the left-turn arrows from various directions. The timing of the traffic signal is programmed, and varies hourly and daily.One of the major contributors to traffic jams at the intersection is the Hometown Farmers Market, open every Wednesday.Leibensperger said that the "phase light" changes cost Rush Township $1,700. But, he added, a municipality which requests a study for an issue such as light timing has to be prepared for what could result a PennDOT study could advise a much more costly fix, such as reconfiguring an intersection."A traffic light system can cost a municipality from $300,000 to $400,000," Leibensperger said. "We can ask for fixes that are low-cost, but that doesn't mean that the fix that's advised is low-cost it just doesn't always work that way."The township's police department has been very aggressive with enforcement along Route 309, and the department has been successful getting grants to conduct aggressive driving enforcement activities."They've (the officers) been pulling people over right and left, and doing their best to curb the problem with crashes," Leibensperger said."But the problem is that with the addition of businesses like Walmart and Turkey Hill, the traffic flow has greatly increased in the area.""I don't know what the answer is," he said. "But people's lives are at stake."