South Bend is seeing slightly fewer vehicle crashes this year, but there are still some problem intersections.
The intersection of Ireland Road and Michigan Street near the U.S. 20 Bypass has seen the most collisions so far this year in the city, with 19 from January through September. That’s an increase from the same period in 2024, even though it was one of six intersections targeted for police focus, based on last year’s data.
Assistant Police Chief Dan Skibins says some adjustments will likely need to be made. "Three of those intersections from 2024, we’ve seen an improvement in," Skibins said during South Bend's quarterly public safety update Thursday. "Unfortunately, three of them, we’ve seen some of those crashes go up a bit."
Other top intersections for crashes include Portage and Cleveland roads, Chapin and Sample streets, and South Bend Avenue and Ironwood Road.
At the same time, Skibins said South Bend police are pulling more vehicles over. “When we started this, our department was averaging 20 to 25 stops a day, and now we’re approaching 50 stops," he said.
Skibins said community members wanted something done, after the COVID pandemic led to an increase in dangerous driving. Since then, he said, he’s been gradually setting higher and higher goals for the city’s traffic officers.
“Building back our staffing was important to be able to do that, adding officers to the shifts so that they could maintain on every shift and patrol, traffic enforcement officers,” Skibins explained.
He said South Bend police have been able to maintain a staff of about 250 officers for the past two years. He hopes to push that number more consistently to the mid-250s.
