Is Van Dyke roundabout really that dangerous for drivers?

STERLING HEIGHTS — What goes around comes around.

A Sterling Heights intersection has — again — been pegged among the state’s most hazardous for drivers to navigate. But is it really as perilous as its reputation would suggest?

Despite regular appearances at the top of third-party lists of treacherous traffic areas, evidence shows the high-volume roundabout on Van Dyke Avenue at 18 1/2 Mile Road isn’t as precarious as it's often portrayed.

Although a tremendous number of automobiles pass through the roundabout on a daily basis, fatal accidents are nonexistent and even serious injury reports are infrequent. The vast majority of incidents result in property damage. Any injuries reported are typically minor.

According to Sterling Heights City Engineer Brent Bashaw, a five-year study of the Van Dyke roundabout from 2019-2023 showed there were no fatal or serious-injury crashes. A subsequent analysis for 2024-2025 likewise revealed zero fatal or serious-injury crashes at the roundabout.

Bashaw said the lack of major incidents over the past seven years confirms that the roundabout is a safe conduit for commuters.

“It kind of goes along with what roundabouts do,” he said. “Roundabouts eliminate head-on type crashes and angle-type crashes, which are T-bone crashes. And those are the types of crashes that typically produce what’s called a type A or type K accident, which is a fatal or a serious injury accident.”

Bashaw said the roundabout more often experiences sideswipe crashes, which are typically less severe encounters.

 

What’s dangerous?

So if drivers aren’t dying or even regularly heading to the hospital after run-ins at Van Dyke and 18 1/2 Mile, why do independent rankings repeatedly put the roundabout at or near the top of annual lists of the “most dangerous intersections” and “most dangerous roundabouts” statewide and regionally?

The disconnect, apparently, depends on how you define “dangerous.”

Farmington Hills-based Michigan Auto Law bases its reports on data from the Michigan State Police Traffic Crash Reporting Unit. The firm’s latest release came in January and noted 162 total crashes and 12 injuries for the roundabout in 2024.

“This Macomb County traffic circle tops our Michigan’s Most Dangerous Roundabouts list for 2024 as it saw a 20% increase in total crashes in 2024, jumping from 135 in 2023 to 162 in 2024,” Michigan Auto Law said in its report. “In 2022, there were 118 total car accidents, down from 168 in 2021. In 2020 and 2019, there were 131 and 229 crashes, respectively.”

Likewise, the firm placed Van Dyke and 18 1/2 Mile at No. 2 on a top 20 list of Michigan’s Most Dangerous Intersections for 2024.

The firm says the “most dangerous” reports are part of its “ongoing public safety campaign to raise awareness and help drivers make safer decisions on Michigan roads." 

In a news release, Steve Gursten, president and attorney at Michigan Auto Law, said, "By highlighting high-risk roundabouts, our lawyers aim to encourage motorists to use extra caution, refresh their knowledge of driving through roundabouts, and consider alternate routes when possible."

Sterling Heights Police Lt. Aaron Susalla, who heads the department’s traffic safety division, acknowledged there are plenty of crashes at the Van Dyke roundabout, but said the incidents are more likely to be fender benders than life-threatening crashes.

“When you hear the most dangerous intersections, you're thinking of people getting injured — like seriously injured,” he said. “With the roundabout, it's actually doing exactly what it's designed to do. So even though the number of crashes is much higher, the injury rate is very low, and there's no fatality there.”

Data from the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Traffic and Safety Unit appears to counter the description of the roundabout as dangerous. An MDOT examination of data from 2023-2025 showed 374 crashes with no fatalities, no serious injuries and no minor injuries.

Bashaw said the Van Dyke roundabout, which was completed in 2005, has been successful in reducing high-risk crashes and adds to the city’s long-term strategy of ending all fatal and serious injury traffic altercations.

“Our Vision 2050 goal is to eliminate those types of crashes so anyone traveling to their destination gets there safely,” he said. The roundabout, he said, “absolutely” has a higher volume of crashes but is safer overall. 

Regarding the roundabout’s risky reputation as characterized by third parties, Bashaw said, “Dangerous is kind of a loose term.” 

However, Michigan Auto Law says MDOT's injury and fatality data is generally based on ambulance responses at crash scenes and may not capture injuries that are not immediately apparent. 

"People can have very serious injuries from crashes where an ambulance is not called to the scene," Gursten said. "Police reports and ambulance responses can be misleading as they only tell us what people reported immediately afterwards at the scene. They do not — and cannot — accurately take into account all the people who go home and then later that day to the emergency room or who go to a family doctor the next day." 

Melanie Davis, Sterling Heights community relations director, said Michigan Auto Law’s reports on crash statistics is useful information, but added that the city has never challenged the firm’s description of the roundabout as “dangerous.”

“Rather than chasing down an attorney's office who's printing this crash data, we're instead using our time to focus on the Vision Zero (initiative),” she said. “Our goal is to make sure that people aren't getting seriously injured or killed. That's where we're focusing our energies.”

 

Circular logic

According to MDOT, roundabouts are easy to navigate and safer than traditional intersections. The department’s website offers tips for motorists using roundabouts, including choosing a lane before entering, yielding to traffic already in the roundabout and using signs and pavement markings as guideposts.

Susalla echoed that advice while adding that driving defensively and anticipating the actions of other drivers can help make roundabout encounters more routine than risky.

“I can't tell how many crashes I've avoided, even though the other person was in the wrong with what they did, by kind of predicting and feeling like they're going to use this roundabout improperly and kind of make up for their mistakes as well,” he said. 

Although the Van Dyke roundabout attracts the most attention from outsiders, data shows there are other intersections eights that could more accurately be labeled dangerous, such as Van Dyke and Metropolitan Parkin Sterling Hway, which sees a high volume of vehicles traveling at higher speeds than the roundabout a couple of miles away.

“Van Dyke and Metro Parkway is one of the higher ones for type A and type K accidents,” Bashaw said.

Other city crossroads recorded, albeit limited, worse traffic outcomes than Van Dyke and 18 1/2 Mile between 2019 and 2023. For example, the intersection of 15 Mile and Dodge Park roads had one fatal and two serious injury crashes. Likewise, 15 Mile and Hayes Road had one fatal and two serious injuries. The 18 Mile Road and Van Dyke intersection, meanwhile, recorded one fatal and one serious injury crash.

 

What’s in a name?

So does the Van Dyke roundabout really deserve a “dangerous” designation or not? The lack of fatalities and officially reported serious injuries makes a compelling case for no. The frequency of car-to-car contact, however, argues that the answer yes can’t be dismissed. 

If there’s a verdict, maybe it is let’s agree to disagree.

“While roundabouts are often promoted as safer alternatives to traditional intersections, research from the Michigan Department of Transportation shows that converting an intersection into a roundabout can significantly increase the total number of crashes, even though fatal and injury crashes may decrease,” Michigan Auto Law said. “This distinction is important, as drivers face a higher overall likelihood of being involved in a collision at roundabouts with elevated crash frequency.”

Bashaw echoed that assessment.  

“There's definitely a propensity for more accidents than a standard intersection, but the data shows that (roundabouts) are also safer in a sense that they're eliminating the serious and fatal type crashes,” he said.

Interpreting traffic crash data, Susalla said, is a two-way street.

“You can get numbers, but without the context behind them, what do they really mean?” he said. “You can look at numbers in many different ways.” 

Call Staff Writer Gary Winkelman at (586) 498-1070.