Data: Crashes common on Grindstone Parkway

Crashes on Grindstone Parkway in Columbia are frequent, according to data maintained by the state.

The STARS crash reporting system shows there have been 45 crashes along that road from the beginning of 2018 to the present. Only eight of those crashes resulted in injuries.

“I was actually sideswiped near that area,” Columbia resident Elizabeth Green said.

Green said she was driving home and was hit by another car in the intersection where Grindstone Parkway turns into Nifong Boulevard.

“They ended up hitting me and my car was totaled,” she said.

Two pedestrians were hurt, one seriously, Sunday when a vehicle slammed into them and another vehicle as they were picking up cones along Grindstone from a foot race earlier in the day.

“I have definitely seen the aftermath of many, at least four or five crashes,” another Columbia resident, Emily Haynes, said Monday. “I’ve actually tried to help prevent them by letting people cross the roadway.”

In the Columbia city limits, three major roads have a speed limit of 50 miles per hour, not counting Interstate 70 and Highway 63: Grindstone Parkway, Stadium Boulevard and Providence Road.

According to state data, there have been 91 crashes on Stadium Boulevard since Jan. 1, 2018. Twenty-three crashes resulted in injuries and one resulted in death.

Authorities have reported 127 crashes on Providence Road since January 2018. Forty of those resulted in injury.

Using road lengths provided by Columbia Public Works, Stadium Boulevard has an average of 13.92 crashes per mile, while Providence Road has 18.3 crashes per mile. Grindstone Parkway is significantly shorter than Stadium and Providence but saw 18.82 crashes per mile since the start of 2018.

“I think the accidents have increased with the amount of college housing that has been there,” Haynes said of Grindstone.

Haynes said she thinks the speed limit could be a factor combined with the large number of people who drive through the area.

Columbia resident Tabia Jones has experienced several accidents along Grindstone Parkway.

“We’ve lived over here for nine years, and it seems to have happened to us every two years or so,” Jones said in a Facebook message.

Jones said at one point, her family was driving through the light at the intersection of Highway 63 and Grindstone Parkway when a woman ran the red light.

“We’ve had three vehicles totaled in the same place,” she said.

The crashes are worrisome because her children are often in the car with her, Jones said.