Letters to the Editor

Roundabouts Improve Safety, Traffic

The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) is building a pair of traffic roundabouts this year along State Route 372 at the intersections of Pahrump Valley Boulevard and Blagg Road in Nye County. Roundabouts are one-way circular intersections with a center island where traffic flows freely without stop signs or traffic lights. They’re safer and more efficient than traditional four-way signalized intersections.

A roundabout has only eight points of potential conflict for vehicle collisions; by contrast, four-way signalized intersections have four times as many conflict points. The reason comes from the flow of roundabout traffic, requiring vehicles to enter and exit using rights turns at reduced speeds. Lower roundabout traveling speeds allow for smaller gaps between circulating vehicles for increased traffic volume and fewer delays as well as better fuel consumption and improved air pollution. As a result, there are substantially fewer crashes than four-way traffic signals.

Roundabouts were first introduced in Las Vegas in 1990. They have since exploded in popularity. A transportation research study shows that roundabouts can reduce injury-related crashes by 80 percent compared to four-way signalized intersections. They’re cost-effective, too, saving about $5,000 annually due to no electrical fees and reduced maintenance expenses.

Roundabouts additionally can accommodate larger and longer vehicles such as trucks, buses and horse trailers. And there are 10-foot wide sidewalks and crosswalks, with islands in between for safe, easy walking. Cyclists, meanwhile, can use either the vehicle travel lanes or pedestrian sidewalks.

The two Pahrump roundabouts represent $3.09 million in construction. The dual projects will break ground this summer, and finish by the fall of 2016. Ultimately, the roundabouts will make a great addition to Pahrump’s transportation network, further improving mobility while also enhancing safety.

For more information about roundabouts, visit the NDOT website at: nevadadot.com/roundabout.

Tony Illia

Public Information Officer II

Nevada Department of Transportation

Desert View a pleasant experience

Perhaps this will help someone find out that we have a surgeon at Desert View Hospital. His name is John Sorenson. He’s qualified … general surgery, appendectomy, gall bladder, hernias, bowel obstructions, breast surgeries, gastrointestinal services.

My wife had her tracheostomy tube removed and her two doctors kept saying the stoma, (hole in her neck) would heal from the inside out if given time. I told them for seven months that the trach tube had been in too long and was not going to heal. She suffered the whole time, while that hole interfered with her speech, her feeding, etc.

There is evidence that doctors tend to leave patients on ventilators and tracheostomy tubes beyond necessity, to the detriment of the patient. I wonder why. Allowing the stoma to heal itself is not in the patient’s best interest. It does however keep them in the system a lot longer.

The Desert View Hospital sent out a flyer explaining what was going on at their facility. I found that I had a surgeon a quarter-mile from me, so I told the doctor to refer my wife to him. We saw Dr. Sorenson. He made an appointment for her operation the following week. Two weeks after the event her neck was completely healed.

The visit to the hospital, the surgery, the people taking care of preparations and everything else I could name made it a “Pleasant Experience.”

Curt Gottfred