AZ - photo radar is coming to Pinal County's Hunt Highway

Pinal County Road Has Rise in Traffic Incidents as Area Grows

March 21st, 2007 @ 4:44am

by Associated Press

Traffic enforcement and photo radar is coming to Pinal County's Hunt Highway corridor, which has seen more than a 660 percent increase in traffic incidents since 2003.

The highway was a rural back road from Phoenix to Florence that wasn't entirely paved until the late 1990s.

It has morphed into a congested arterial road because of growth in the area and that's resulted in a spike in traffic, collisions, and the heightened attention of the sheriff's office.

Crashes on Hunt Highway jumped from 27 in 2003 to 206 in 2006, according to data from the county Sheriff's Office. Fatal crashes went from one to three in the same years.

The sheriff's office plans to use money from the Governor's Office to pay deputies overtime to do traffic enforcement on Hunt Highway and also have photo radar in the area within the next two months