Murrysville Council has approved the installation of a four-way stop at the intersection of North Hills Road and School Road.

Council voted 5-1 at the March 4 meeting to implement the recommendations of a PennDOT traffic study, which showed that the troublesome intersection was the site of 14 crashes over the past five years.

“When I see 14 crashes, eight of which were people proceeding (into the intersection) without clearance, the goal should be to eliminate those accidents,” said Councilman Darren Miller. “I’ve been going through this intersection since 1987, in the back of a car, in the front of a car. If you’re pulling out from North Hills Road and turning left, it can cause some heart palpitations.”

Resident Nathan Zimmerman felt visibility for drivers was the intersection’s main issue.

“I’d encourage you to look at fixing the visibility rather than putting stop signs in for School Road,” Zimmerman said.

Murrysville Chief Administrator Michael Nestico said the municipality’s ability to address visibility depends on the location of trees or shrubs that are blocking the view.

“If they’re in the right of way, we have some more options there,” Nestico said. “Typically our public works department already does that. If they see something, they’ll contact property owners. The traffic study, however, does make reference to 250-some feet of sight distance as adequate.”

Councilwoman Jamie Lingg, who cast the lone vote against installing the stop signs, said she wanted to make sure “the cure isn’t worse than the disease.”

“I don’t feel the study considered inclement weather and stopping while going down the slopes that lead to that intersection, especially when school is letting out, or when there’s a backup of vehicles,” Lingg said.

“I do know that there are other stop signs in the community that are located at the bottom of a hill,” Nestico said. “I travel that road all the time, and I’ll admit, I don’t love the idea of a stop sign there. But this area does have traffic that travels fast.”

Lingg agreed.

“There is a speeding problem on that road. The study says nearly 20% of the vehicles on School Road are traveling faster than 40 mph. … I just want to make sure we’re thinking of other things that could happen there with two more stop signs installed.”

Councilman Jason Lemak asked what the potential repercussions could be if council decided not to act on the traffic study’s recommendation.

Both Nestico and Wes Long agreed that, if a crash were to happen, any litigation that might arise from it would almost certainly reference council’s lack of action in the face of the traffic study recommendation.

Miller said council’s top priority should be safety.

“We should all slow down,” he said. “With a four-way stop there, everyone is going to slow down.”

Nestico said the municipality will install stop signs and all-way plaques in addition to “stop ahead” signs 260 feet from the new stop signs. Temporary yellow flashers would be installed on the “stop ahead” signs, with red ones on the new stop signs.

They will stay in place to help drivers acclimate to the new intersection controls.

Nestico said the municipality did not have a timeline for when construction would start.