Injury Wrecks Up 45 Percent on Nevada Interstate Under Construction

Traffic accidents have been on the rise on a busy stretch of Interstate 80 in Reno since a major construction project began more than a year ago.

An analysis by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows a 45 percent increase in accidents causing injuries since the work began between U.S Highway 395 and the Keystone interchange on the west edge of downtown.

That’s an average of 8.3 injury accidents per month, compared with 5.7 per month before the road work started in the spring of 2011.

Rear-end crashes with injuries increased by more than 62 percent, from 3.5 to 5.7 a month.

State transportation spokesman Scott Magruder says trouble was expected because during much of the project, cement barriers narrowed traffic to two lanes in each direction instead of the usual three.