HOUGHTON — The two persons that were taken to UP Health System Portage after a rollover crash on West Memorial Drive (M-26) Monday were not kept overnight according to Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly. Chief Donnelly said he is not aware of any serious injuries sustained in the accident, which is one of several which have occurred at the same area of near around Dunkin’, which Donnelly believes is the result of traffic congestion with drivers trying to get through the choke point at the Portage Lift Bridge.

“We have an entrance from M-26 coming down the hill and then we have US 41 coming down Shelden, and we’re trying to get everybody across that bridge as quickly as possible that wants to go there,” Donnelly said. “With that being said, we have a problem with having downtown being walkable, and we want to make sure that people can cross the street and do things like that. Every time we make a decision to try to create gaps and make downtown more walkable, we end up increasing that backup on M-26.”

Donnelly and Houghton City Manager Eric Waara are in current talks with the Michigan Department of Transportation to come up with solutions to alleviate the traffic problems in the area. Donnelly said they want to make sure people can cross the street safely but he believes the amount of injuries and accidents on M-26, is due to the backup. “Being a mechanical lift bridge, we’re never going to be able to eliminate all the backups, but we want to try to reduce them to the best of our ability,” he said.

Donnelly wants to remind the public left hand turns in heavy traffic are the most common cause of accidents near Dunkin’ on M-26.

“The most common circumstances is somebody gives somebody else a gap to go through to make a left turn on the left lane on the north end side, and there’s somebody coming down the hill in the right lane, which is blocked due to that traffic back up, and somebody tries to they created gaps for somebody to make a turn, and people don’t understand that there’s another lane of travel, and that’s where the accidents take place,” Donnelly explained.

Donnelly said it was an attempted left turn which led to the accident on Monday.