BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — Traffic accidents in the village were up slightly in the last quarter of 2022 and at least one resident is voicing concerns over what they said was speeding traffic on village streets.

Potsdam Village Police Chief Mark Murray told the village board at their meeting March 20, that the accident totals were slightly higher than in past years. During a presentation of the police department’s call report for the last quarter (Oct. 1-Dec. 31), Murray said the other numbers of incidents and calls was about the same as past quarters.

“Looking at the paper I provided, total numbers of incidents 2,029 total, with 228 arrests, which includes traffic stops, with traffic tickets,” Murray told the board.

“Broken down a little bit by penal law, that would be five felonies, 23 misdemeanors, 28 violations,” said the chief.

“By categories, domestic incidents were about normal at 19. Vehicle and traffic tickets 172. Alcohol Beverage Control Law 7. Twelve DWIs which is slightly up from the quarter previous and the quarter last year,” said Murray.

“Collisions are up at 103. We have seen a trend upwards in motor vehicle accidents, personal injury and just property damage,” the chief said.

He said there were several locations where the accidents occur. The chief said patrols have been stationed in those areas proactively to “observe” what the department thinks are the reasons for the extra collisions.

“That’s our best enforcement action on that, to be proactive,” Murray said.

Beyond the collisions investigated by the department, he said there were 475 total traffic stops in the last quarter of 2022. “Four hundred and five of which resulted in a verbal warning only. So we had 70 tickets issued on 475 stops. That’s roughly about 15 percent of the time we stopped a car we issued a citation.”

Murray said that percentage is normally around 25 percent.

Village Trustee Alexandra Jacobs Wilke asked for specifics on the reasons for the larger collision numbers, whether it might be changes on Route 11 or daylight savings time or some other reason.

Murray said that according to the incident reports he has read Maple Street is something of a bottleneck which is leading to higher collision numbers.

“If you’re on Sandstone going to Maple Street, you will see cars get into the left lane because it's backed up so far and it’s like a speed race. Who can get up to the fastest speed and cut in before. It’s not an orderly transition and I’m not sure how we address that.”

Murray said that Sandstone Drive “seems to be the same speedway it always has been” despite police patrols on the street.

“DWIs are up despite the state making it far more punitive to get one these days,” Murray said.

Wilke asked if there was anything the village could do to address the traffic issues on Route 11 as it enters the village by Clarkson University.

“You could sit there for four lights,” said Village Trustee Steve Warr. “I’ve seen traffic backed up from there on the one lane, all the way to Five Guys when they have the big trucks. You could sit there for four lights.”

“They didn’t do any favors when they changed the traffic pattern on that street. Didn’t do anybody any favors,” Warr said.

The trustees, chief and administrator then briefly discussed the Route 11 stretch and other problem areas.

Later during the public comment portion of the meeting, Shirley Christman of Waverly Street voiced concerns about the speed of village traffic. Christman said she has lived at her Waverly Street home for a “great number of years” and that most days she likes having a McMuffin.

“So everyday I go to McDonald’s and I get an egg McMuffin and a ice coffee. Most days. And, so I’m out driving in Potsdam every day. This is my pet peeve driving, it’s extremely difficult to get on or off Market Street,” Christmas said.

“The other day, I was down to my hairdressers and I made the wrong turn when I came out and I sat at the intersection of that street and Market Street so long that I finally turned around and went back so I could get the light on Grove Street,” she said.

Christman said trying to turn on Grove Street is difficult as well.

“You would not know that the speed limit in Potsdam is 30 miles per hour,” she said.

“And somebody’s going to get hurt, bad,” Christman said.

“I don’t have an answer about what we can do, I just think we need to do something,” she said. “The Market Street thing is awful, I mean it's really awful, you can’t get on or off.”