Key Facts
Buckeye’s own engineering report projected a roundabout would cut serious-injury crashes 41.7% at Durango and Yuma. The City chose a signalized design that cuts them 15.4%.
Construction cost difference: $1,406,940. Roundabout was $9.22M. Signalized LILO was $7.81M.
FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures program documents 46% reduction in fatal and serious-injury crashes when signalized intersections convert to roundabouts.
Buckeye’s population grew 32.95% between 2020 and 2024. Higher AADT compounds the safety gap across the design life of the pavement.

In November 2025, the City of Buckeye signed Improvement Plans for the intersection of Durango Street and Yuma Road.

The City had two designs in front of it. One was a modern roundabout. One was a signalized Left-In Left-Out (LILO) T-intersection. The Traffic Engineering Report for project ENGCIP-25-0004 modeled both. The numbers weren’t close.

The roundabout would have reduced serious, minor, and suspected-injury crashes by 41.7%. The signalized LILO reduces them by 15.4%.

The City chose the signalized LILO.

26.3 points
The injury-crash reduction gap between Alternative 1 (roundabout) and Alternative 2 (signalized LILO) per Buckeye's own Traffic Engineering Report
ENGCIP-25-0004 Crash Modification Factor Analysis, City of Buckeye
Buckeye Durango and Yuma intersection: roundabout would have reduced injury crashes 41.7%, signalized design chosen reduces them 15.4%
buckeye-durango-yuma-injury-crash-reduction-by-design-alternative

Source: City of Buckeye Traffic Engineering Report ENGCIP-25-0004 (2025), Crash Modification Factor analysis.

Free for editorial reuse. Embed includes a do-follow link to the source story.

What the Report Said

Buckeye’s Traffic Engineering Report for ENGCIP-25-0004 ran a Crash Modification Factor (CMF) analysis on both alternatives. CMFs are the engineering standard for predicting crash outcomes at a specific intersection geometry. They’re built from decades of national data published by FHWA’s CMF Clearinghouse and applied to the local traffic profile.

The CMF results in the report are unambiguous.

Crash Type & SeverityRoundabout (Alternative 1)Signalized LILO (Alternative 2)
Serious, minor, or suspected injury41.7% reduction15.4% reduction
All crash types (any severity)34.6% increase4.2% reduction

The “all crash types” line is where the conversation usually goes sideways. Roundabouts produce more low-severity crashes (think slow-speed sideswipes during the merge). They produce dramatically fewer high-severity crashes (the right-angle T-bones and high-speed rear-ends that put people in the ICU). Public works engineers know this. The Federal Highway Administration’s Proven Safety Countermeasures program is built around it.

For most road users, the second row is noise. The first row is what determines whether someone walks away.

What the City Said in Response

The Evaluation Criteria Matrix in the report lists the factors the City weighted in favor of the signalized design. They’re public record. They’re also worth reading directly:

  • Public Perception. The City explicitly noted that roundabouts are “uncommon in the City and will require time for the public to adjust.” The signalized intersection is familiar.
  • Construction Cost. Roundabout: $9,221,701. Signalized LILO: $7,814,761. Difference: $1,406,940.
  • Right-of-Way Impacts. Roundabout required 123,230 square feet of land and impacted 16 parcels. The signalized LILO required 88,320 square feet and impacted 11.
  • Utility Impacts. Roundabout would have affected 1,650 linear feet of power lines and 8 electric poles. Signalized: 780 feet and 4 poles.

These are real considerations. Right-of-way and utility relocations aren’t free, and the cost line is the line elected officials answer to. But none of them is a safety argument. The safety argument went the other way and the City logged it as a tradeoff.

The implicit per-injury cost

The roundabout cost $1.4 million more and prevents an additional 26.3 percentage points of injury crashes over its service life. Whether that is “expensive” depends on how you value an additional injury, including injuries that would have been fatal without a redesign. Federal valuation of a statistical life sits in the $13 million range as of recent DOT guidance. A serious-injury equivalent is in the millions. The math isn’t ambiguous. The City just decided the multi-million-dollar value of injuries it was choosing to allow was worth less than $1.4 million in concrete.

How the National Data Compares

Buckeye’s 41.7% projected reduction is conservative compared to what national data shows.

FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures program documents 28% to 37% reductions in all injury crashes and 46% reduction in fatal and serious-injury crashes when signalized intersections convert to roundabouts. A meta-analysis of 44 international studies (CMF Clearinghouse Study ID 510) reports 40% injury reductions and 65% fatal-crash reductions. The strongest case is rural high-speed 4-leg conversions (Study ID 304), where injury crash reductions reach 87% to 88% and angle crashes drop 91%.

Durango at Yuma is a 3-leg arterial intersection in a fast-growing suburban city. The geometry sits closer to the rural 4-leg scenarios than to a downtown grid intersection. The 41.7% projection in the Buckeye report tracks the conservative end of the FHWA data. The 15.4% projected for the signalized design is what a near-status-quo intersection improvement looks like.

This isn’t a marginal call. This is FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures program telling state and local engineers, in writing, that roundabouts are how you prevent the crashes that send people to trauma centers.

The Population Trajectory

Buckeye’s population was 93,741 at the 2020 Census. The Census Bureau’s 2024 estimate puts the city at 114,334. That’s 32.95% growth in four years. Buckeye sits consistently in the top tier of the fastest-growing US cities and is projected to clear 119,000 residents in 2025 and 124,000 in 2026.

The math gets worse from here.

Annual Average Daily Traffic on suburban arterials scales with population. A 33% population increase over four years implies meaningful AADT growth at every signalized arterial intersection in the city, including Durango and Yuma. Crash rate is a function of exposure. The percent reductions in the engineering report are applied to a baseline that is itself growing.

Across a 20-year pavement design life, a 26-point gap in injury-crash reduction at an arterial intersection in one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States adds up to a measurable, real number of additional injuries. The City has the engineering data. It chose to build to it anyway.

What This Means If You’re Hurt There

If you’re injured in a crash at the new Durango and Yuma intersection after construction completes, several things matter quickly:

  • Document the geometry. Phone photos of the lane configuration, signal phasing, sight lines, and vehicle final-rest positions are all evidence. Intersection design contributes to crashes more often than insurance adjusters acknowledge.
  • Don’t give a recorded statement. Insurance representatives for the at-fault driver will call within hours. Anything you say without counsel can narrow your case.
  • Watch the public-entity clock. A municipal corporation like Buckeye is a public entity. Arizona requires a Notice of Claim within 180 days under ARS 12-821.01 for any claim against a public entity. That includes claims that involve intersection design or maintenance. Miss the deadline, lose the right.
  • Call a lawyer early. Traffic-camera retention windows are short. ELD data on commercial vehicles ages out. Witness recall fades.

If you’ve already been hurt at this intersection in its current configuration, the same advice applies. The decision the City made on the redesign doesn’t change the law on what you’re owed for what already happened.

The Bigger Point

The City of Buckeye didn’t lack information when it made this decision. The Traffic Engineering Report is detailed. The CMF analysis is sound. The FHWA backing for roundabouts as a serious-injury countermeasure is unambiguous.

What the City did was weigh the safety advantage of the roundabout against $1.4 million in concrete and against the public’s unfamiliarity with the design. It decided the safety advantage was worth less.

Every state in the country has cities that are now built around roundabouts. Carmel, Indiana, has more than 150. They were unfamiliar there too, once.

The intersection at Durango and Yuma will see traffic for decades. The decisions about how it gets built are being made right now, in public records, by people whose names are on the documents. The math on what those decisions are worth in human terms is also public.

It deserves to be read.

If you have documents on this project

This investigation is built from the publicly-available Traffic Engineering Report and signed Improvement Plans for ENGCIP-25-0004, supplemented with FHWA national data and US Census population figures. If you have additional public records, public-comment transcripts, council vote tallies, or correspondence on the Durango and Yuma intersection decision, contact us. We publish primary-source documents in full where the facts warrant it.

For the legal and process context, see Brandon Millam’s guide to Arizona car crash law, Stephanie Ramirez’s car crash first 48 hours, the car crashes practice overview.

Frequently asked questions

What did the Buckeye Traffic Engineering Report actually say about the Durango and Yuma intersection?
Project ENGCIP-25-0004 evaluated two alternatives. Alternative 1 (a roundabout) was projected to reduce serious, minor, and suspected-injury crashes by 41.7% per the Crash Modification Factor (CMF) analysis. Alternative 2 (a signalized Left-In Left-Out, or LILO, intersection) was projected at a 15.4% injury reduction. The roundabout was estimated at $9,221,701. The signalized design came in at $7,814,761. The City selected Alternative 2.
Why did Buckeye reject the safer roundabout?
The Evaluation Criteria Matrix in the report gives four reasons the City favored the signalized LILO. Construction cost was about $1.4 million lower. Right-of-way needed was 88,320 square feet vs 123,230 for the roundabout, with 11 parcels impacted vs 16. Utility impacts were lower (780 linear feet of power lines and 4 electric poles vs 1,650 feet and 8 poles for the roundabout). And the City flagged that roundabouts are 'uncommon in the City and will require time for the public to adjust.'
How does the roundabout's safety advantage compare to national data?
FHWA's Proven Safety Countermeasures program documents 28-37% reductions in all injury crashes and a 46% reduction in fatal and serious-injury crashes when signalized intersections convert to roundabouts. A meta-analysis of 44 studies (CMF Clearinghouse Study ID 510) found 40% injury reductions and 65% fatal reductions. For rural high-speed 4-leg conversions specifically (CMF Clearinghouse Study ID 304), injury crash reductions reach 87-88%. The 41.7% figure in Buckeye's report is conservative compared to the national range.
How fast is Buckeye growing, and what does that mean for traffic at this intersection?
Buckeye grew from 93,741 residents in 2020 to about 114,334 by mid-2024. That's 32.95% growth in four years, putting Buckeye consistently in the top tier of fastest-growing US cities. Maricopa County is projected to add hundreds of thousands more residents by 2030. Higher population means higher AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) at every arterial intersection, including Durango and Yuma. The injury exposure compounds across the design life of the pavement.
What should I do if I'm hurt in a crash at Durango and Yuma after the redesign?
Call 911 first, then document everything you can: the lane configuration, signal phasing, vehicle positions, and any contributing conditions. Get the names and contact info of witnesses. Don't give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer. Photographs of the intersection geometry can matter in cases where intersection design contributes to a crash. If a public-entity claim becomes part of the case (Buckeye is a municipal corporation), Arizona requires a Notice of Claim within 180 days under ARS 12-821.01. Talk to a lawyer before that clock runs.
Who in Buckeye made the decision to reject the roundabout?
The Traffic Engineering Report was reviewed and approved through Buckeye's Engineering Department and the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) process. Final signed Improvement Plans (ENGCIP-25-0004) were issued in November 2025. Public records requests to the City of Buckeye Engineering Department, Public Works, and the City Council clerk can identify the specific staff and elected officials whose recommendations and votes drove the selection.
Is it worth getting an attorney for a car accident in Arizona?
Arizona law allows people injured in car crashes to seek compensation even if they're partly at fault, under pure comparative negligence (A.R.S. § 12‑2505), which often makes disputed or serious cases more complex. An attorney tends to matter most when injuries are significant, fault is contested, there are multiple vehicles, or the insurance company disputes or undervalues the claim. For most injury cases, lawyers in Arizona work on contingency, so their fee comes from any settlement or judgment instead of upfront payment. Arizona generally gives people two years to file most car accident injury claims (A.R.S. § 12‑542), and attorneys can track these deadlines and document medical bills, lost income, and future care needs. ADOT crash data for 2024 shows tens of thousands of injury crashes statewide each year, so insurers rely on standardized processes that may not fully account for an individual person’s losses, which is where legal representation can change outcomes.
What is the average settlement for a car accident in Arizona?
Arizona data and legal sources show wide variation in car accident outcomes, so any “average” is a rough estimate only. Recent Arizona reports and law firm surveys in 2024 and 2025 describe many settlements falling somewhere between about $5,000 and $100,000, with minor injuries often in the $5,000 to $25,000 range and moderate injuries sometimes reaching $100,000 or more. More severe or permanent injuries can exceed $100,000 and may reach several hundred thousand dollars or higher, although Arizona’s minimum liability limits of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for bodily injury (A.R.S. § 28‑4009) can cap recovery if there’s no additional coverage. Jury verdict data cited for Arizona shows a median trial award under $20,000, which means many people injured recover less than headline figures suggest. The actual settlement depends on factors like medical bills, lost income, long‑term impairment, available insurance, and how clearly evidence shows the other driver was at fault under Arizona’s fault-based system (A.R.S. § 12‑2505 on comparative fault).
What is the hardest injury to prove?
In Arizona cases, the hardest injuries to prove are usually those that do not show clearly on imaging and rely on a person’s description of symptoms, such as soft tissue injuries (whiplash, sprains), mild traumatic brain injuries, chronic pain conditions, and psychological trauma. These injuries often involve delayed onset, fluctuating pain, or cognitive and emotional changes that standard X‑rays or CT scans don’t capture, so insurers and defense attorneys may dispute both causation and severity. Arizona law allows people injured to present medical records, expert testimony, pain journals, and witness statements to substantiate these “invisible” harms, and non‑economic damages for pain and suffering are permitted without a statutory cap (see Ariz. Const. art. 2, § 31; art. 18, § 6). ADOT crash data show thousands of injury collisions in Arizona each year, and in 2024 many involved rear‑end and angle crashes where soft tissue and concussion‑type injuries are common, yet often underdocumented.
What not to tell your insurance company?
Don’t guess, minimize, or admit fault when you speak with an insurance adjuster, because recorded statements and casual comments can be used to dispute liability or injury severity later. Arizona law allows insurers to investigate claims, but claim details still need to stay accurate, so statements like “I’m fine,” “it was my fault,” or speculation about speed, cause, or symptoms can create problems for a claim, especially when medical records later show delayed injuries. Don’t volunteer unrelated medical history or broad access to your entire records unless the request is specific, since insurers often use preexisting-condition arguments to reduce payouts. After a crash, Arizona’s comparative fault rules under A.R.S. § 12-2506 can also affect recovery, so inconsistent statements can matter more than people expect.

Sources & references

Sources
  1. City of Buckeye. (2025). Traffic Engineering Report and Improvement Plans, ENGCIP-25-0004, Durango Street and Yuma Road Intersection.
  2. Federal Highway Administration. (2024). Roundabouts: Proven Safety Countermeasure. Retrieved April 22, 2026, from https://highways.dot.gov/media/33861
  3. FHWA Crash Modification Factors Clearinghouse. (2012). Study ID 304: Isebrands, H. (2012). Crash modification factors for converting rural high-speed intersections to roundabouts. Retrieved from https://cmfclearinghouse.fhwa.dot.gov/study_detail.php?stid=304
  4. FHWA Crash Modification Factors Clearinghouse. Study ID 510: Meta-analysis of junction-to-roundabout conversions. Retrieved from https://cmfclearinghouse.fhwa.dot.gov/study_detail.php?stid=510
  5. US Census Bureau. (2024). QuickFacts: Buckeye city, Arizona. Retrieved April 22, 2026, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/buckeyecityarizona/PST045224
  6. Arizona State Legislature. (2025). ARS 12-821.01: Authorization of Claim Against Public Entity, Public School or Public Employee. Retrieved from https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00821-01.htm
  7. City of Buckeye. (2025). Durango Street Widening Project Public Meeting. Retrieved from https://inbuckeye.com/development/public-meeting-on-durango-street-widening-project/
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