News File Photo Law enforcement and first responders give aid at the Walmart-Meijer intersection in Alpena, the site of an August 15 crash that sent one to the hospital in this News file photo.

ALPENA — Drivers would be well-advised to grip the wheel a little tighter and display a little more caution when headed to pick up a vacuum filter and package of socks.

Since 2015, at least 24 crashes have been reported at the intersections on M-32 in Alpena between Bagley and the Home Depot entrance, state police records show.

Acknowledged by both law enforcement and state transportation officials to be the most crash-prone intersection in the city, the traffic signal at the Walmart and Meijer entrances off M-32 has been the site of at least two collisions since the beginning of August, sending four to the hospital.

Driver error is cited by police as the cause for the crashes, drivers generally running a red light or trying to make it through the tail end of a yellow light, causing a collision.

When the two most-visited commercial stores in a region are located across from each other on a major state road, an increase in crashes is inevitable, according to 1st Lt. John Grimshaw, commander of the MSP-Alpena Post.

The Alpena Meijer store opened in May 2015, with a traffic light added at its M-32 entrance shortly thereafter. A second entrance off of Bagley Street was also added to reduce congestion on the larger road.

Stoplights were installed after a traffic study completed by the Michigan Department of Transportation before Meijer’s construction suggested the installation of additional lights on M-32 would ease congestion on that road, which had already seen a high volume of accidents before the addition of the Meijer store.

While the three lights in a row do slow drivers down and allow safer access to major retailers, crashes still happen at the intersections often. Grimshaw sees an increase in people running red lights as a primary cause of the crashes, and especially the most serious crashes.

MSP troopers include the M-32 corridor as a regular part of their patrols and use overtime to provide a police presence at the intersections, Grimshaw said. The presence of the Alpena Post immediately east of the M-32/Bagley Street intersection may provide another warning to drivers to drive with caution.

MDOT monitors crash patterns at the intersections, reviewing police reports after each crash in search of patterns, according to Kevin Schaedit, operations engineer with the Alpena MDOT office. Acknowledged by Schaedig as the busiest intersection in the six-county area, the Walmart-Meijer intersection has a crash record that may be expected, given the large flow of traffic moving in multiple directions throughout the day.

The signal installed in 2015 changed the crash patterns at that intersection, Schaedig said. Previously, cars would frequently be side-swiped because of drivers misgauging the distance between fast-moving vehicles when trying to enter the roadway.

While traffic signals slow traffic and make for safer turns, drivers at signaled intersections often fail to notice the car in front of them has come to a stop, resulting in more rear-end collisions.

Crashes can be diminished as drivers take extra precautions, Schaedig said, but they can’t be entirely prevented, because, as he said, “there’s a lot of humanity in it.”

Following traffic signals brings a measure of safety, but, he said, “people still make mistakes.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.