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Traffic-signal timing under review after six fatal intersection crashes since 2025
Summary
Public Works reviewed signal timing methodology, said Amarillo follows conservative federal equations and national guidance suggests subtracting a second from red-clearance calculations; staff found six fatal crashes at signalized intersections since January 2025 and recommended data-driven review rather than arbitrary timing changes.
Public Works Director Alan Harder presented an extensive review of traffic-signal timing, national engineering guidance and a local crash analysis after council expressed concern about recent rollovers and intersection fatalities.
Harder said Amarillo uses the federal highway administration equations to calculate yellow and red-clearance intervals, a method he described as conservative compared with more recent ITE and NCHRP guidance that effectively subtracts one second to account for reaction time. Harder reported six fatal crashes at signalized intersections since January 2025 that resulted in eight fatalities; contributing factors included speed in three cases, alcohol in one, red‑light running in two and failure to yield in three.
"Arbitrarily adding time to red clearance intervals is not recommended," Harder said, citing industry consensus that excessively long change intervals can encourage red-light running and reduce intersection efficiency. Councilmembers asked staff to pull multi-year crash and trend data and to form a small subcommittee of citizens and staff to analyze whether systemic changes are warranted. Chief Hoever said the department is increasing traffic enforcement and building traffic-unit capacity over the next 18 months.
Council did not adopt any blanket timing changes at the meeting; instead members asked staff to compile crash-rate trends and to return with data-driven options for potential interventions and targeted enforcement.
