Black Mountain crash site gets new all-way stop on Old U.S. 70 East

The North Carolina Department of Transportation installed a new all-way stop last week at Old U.S. 70 East and Padgettown Road in Black Mountain. The change targets an intersection that had become a recurring crash site just a half-mile from an Interstate 40 on-ramp to the east and downtown Black Mountain to the west, where local and through traffic mix every day.

NCDOT’s crash study found 14 wrecks at the intersection over a five-year period. The agency concluded that an all-way stop would have prevented or reduced the severity of 12 of those crashes.

The new setup includes stop signs, pavement markings and warning placards, including “Stop Ahead” and “New Traffic Pattern” signs. Drivers now must treat the intersection as an all-way stop: the first vehicle to arrive has the right of way, and when two or more vehicles arrive at the same time, the driver on the right goes first. Drivers turning left must yield to traffic going straight.

The Black Mountain change fits a broader safety strategy built around lower-cost intersection fixes that can be installed faster than a roundabout or traffic signal. In a 2023 study of 348 rural intersections in North Carolina, NCDOT found all-way stops reduced total crashes by 55 percent, fatal and serious injury crashes by 92 percent and front-impact crashes with minor injuries by 72 percent. The agency’s comparison table pegs an average all-way stop project at about $30,000 and the work can be completed in less than a year.

NCDOT began expanding its all-way stop program in 2020 and had funded roughly 450 conversions statewide by early 2023, according to the Roadway Safety Foundation. Rural North Carolina intersections account for about 300 fatalities and 1,100 serious injuries each year, according to the Roadway Safety Foundation.