Key Facts
Buckeye chose a signalized intersection over a roundabout at Durango and Yuma, citing cost, construction timing, and the city’s rapid growth.
The choice is part of a roughly $8 million Durango Street widening project running through FY2025/2026.
FHWA lists roundabouts as a Proven Safety Countermeasure and documents large reductions in fatal and injury crashes when intersections convert to roundabouts.
The Census Bureau counted 91,502 Buckeye residents in 2020 and estimated about 114,334 by 2024, roughly 25% growth that keeps Buckeye among the fastest-growing US cities.

The City of Buckeye had two designs in front of it for the intersection of Durango Street and Yuma Road. One was a modern roundabout. One was a signalized intersection.

The City chose the signalized design.

Local reporting on the decision (Your Valley’s “No roundabout for major Buckeye intersection” and InBuckeye) describes the City favoring the signalized intersection on cost, construction timing, and the city’s rapid growth, as part of a roughly $8 million Durango Street widening project running through FY2025/2026.

Buckeye Durango and Yuma intersection: the City chose a signalized design over a roundabout
Buckeye's design choice for the Durango Street and Yuma Road intersection: signalized over roundabout.

Source: Local reporting on the City of Buckeye Durango Street and Yuma Road intersection decision.

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

What the City Weighed

Local coverage of the decision describes the City weighing the roundabout against the signalized design and favoring the signalized option on cost, construction timing, and the city’s rapid growth.

We have asked for the underlying engineering report and have not been able to obtain a public copy. Until we can verify it, we don’t publish the specific cost, right-of-way, parcel, or utility figures that have circulated for this project. We publish primary-source documents in full where we can confirm them.

What the public record does support is the shape of the tradeoff. Cost and timing won. The safety case, which national data ties to roundabouts, did not carry the decision.

How the National Data Compares

The federal safety data favors the design the City passed over.

FHWA lists roundabouts as a Proven Safety Countermeasure and documents large reductions in fatal and injury crashes when intersections convert to roundabouts. The strongest case is rural high-speed conversions: CMF Clearinghouse Study ID 304 (Isebrands, 2012) reports roughly an 88% injury crash reduction and a 91% angle crash reduction.

Durango at Yuma is an arterial intersection in a fast-growing suburban city. The national data is consistent on direction: roundabouts cut the high-severity crashes (the right-angle T-bones and high-speed rear-ends that put people in trauma centers) more than a signalized design does.

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

The Census Bureau counted 91,502 Buckeye residents in 2020. Its 2024 estimate puts the city at about 114,334. That’s roughly 25% growth in four years. Buckeye sits consistently in the top tier of the fastest-growing US cities.

The math gets worse from here.

Annual Average Daily Traffic on suburban arterials scales with population. Double-digit population growth over four years implies meaningful AADT growth at every arterial intersection in the city, including Durango and Yuma. Crash rate is a function of exposure, and the exposure is climbing.

Across a 20-year pavement design life, the gap between a roundabout’s crash performance and a signalized design’s, 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.

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 FHWA backing for roundabouts as a serious-injury countermeasure is unambiguous. The City weighed that safety case against cost, construction timing, and the public’s unfamiliarity with the design, and chose the signalized intersection.

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.

It deserves to be read.

If you have documents on this project

This investigation is built from local reporting on the City of Buckeye’s intersection decision, FHWA national safety data, and US Census population figures. If you have public records, public-comment transcripts, council vote tallies, the engineering report, 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 Ron DeBrigida’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 Buckeye decide at the Durango and Yuma intersection?
The City of Buckeye chose a signalized T-intersection over a roundabout at Durango Street and Yuma Road. Local reporting (yourvalley.net and InBuckeye) confirms the City favored the signalized design on cost, timing, and growth grounds, as part of a roughly $8 million Durango Street widening project running through FY2025/2026.
Why did Buckeye choose the signalized design over a roundabout?
Local reporting on the decision describes the City weighing the signalized design against a roundabout and favoring it on cost, construction timing, and the city's rapid growth. We have not been able to obtain the underlying engineering report, so we don't publish the specific cost, right-of-way, or utility figures attributed to it. We publish primary-source documents in full where we can verify them.
How do roundabouts compare to signalized intersections in national safety data?
FHWA lists roundabouts as a Proven Safety Countermeasure and documents large reductions in fatal and injury crashes when intersections convert to roundabouts. For rural high-speed conversions specifically, CMF Clearinghouse Study ID 304 (Isebrands, 2012) reports roughly an 88% injury crash reduction and a 91% angle crash reduction. The national data favors roundabouts as a serious-crash countermeasure.
How fast is Buckeye growing, and what does that mean for traffic at this intersection?
The Census Bureau counted 91,502 Buckeye residents in 2020 and estimated about 114,334 by mid-2024, roughly 25% growth in four years that keeps Buckeye among the fastest-growing US cities. Higher population generally 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 intersection design moves through Buckeye's Engineering Department and the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) process. 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. Independent Newsmedia. (2025). No roundabout for major Buckeye intersection. Your Valley (yourvalley.net).
  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. US Census Bureau. (2024). QuickFacts: Buckeye city, Arizona. Retrieved April 22, 2026, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/buckeyecityarizona/PST045224
  5. 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
  6. 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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