Diva's Salon in Janesville gets yet another 'do

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Jun 16, 2008 by Report

Diva's Salon in Janesville is not outfitted with a large magnet, but recent activity around the building seems to suggest otherwise.

In the last nine weeks, three car crashes at the corner of Milwaukee and Jackson streets sent cars careening into the corner salon. The drivers only sustained minor injuries, but salon owner Dee Bloom takes little solace in that.

"Something needs to be done," she said. "I don't want to see the day when somebody gets killed on the corner or someone walking in or out of the building gets seriously injured."

The city's Engineering Department recently caught wind of the rash of activity at the corner, and Assistant Engineering Manager Larry Buetzer said the department will be looking into it.

Everyone has a different theory as to why the accidents are occurring all of the sudden. Bloom said she thinks the removal of a lit intersection farther up Milwaukee Street at the Franklin Street intersection is the culprit.

"People could be coming toward this intersection with more momentum now," she said.

But Steven Kopp, deputy chief of the Janesville Police Department, said that was unlikely as all the lit intersections on Milwaukee Street are timed, so momentum would likely be the same whether a light was at the Franklin intersection or not.

He suggested last year's conversion of Jackson Street from a one- way street to a two-way street could be the reason. But Bloom argued if that were the case, more accidents should have happened in the weeks and months immediately following the conversion.

Kopp said two of the accidents occurred because drivers ran red lights, while the third was a matter of inattentive driving that led to a rear-end collision.

"If people are running red lights, they're not obeying basic rules," Buetzer said. "It's just a matter of some unfortunate events."

But three such events in the span of nine weeks at one intersection is a bit strange, said Kopp.

"I'm a little perplexed myself," he said. "It could just be coincidence, but off the top of my head, I can't think of other situations like this."

And it's taken a toll on Bloom's building. The first crash knocked out many of the salon's windows, and the second crashed knocked out the replacement windows. The third crash spared the windows, but caused damage to the building's stairwell casing.

It's not helping business, she said.

"We haven't had a front entrance since April," she said. "A lot of our business is walk-in, and in the past couple of days, people seem nervous to come in."

Insurance is likely to cover most of the damage, Bloom said, but she's still on the hook for the deductible and she said since insurance filings take so long, she still hasn't seen the money from the first accident.

Bloom, who has owned the building since 2003, said she doesn't want to move her business, she just wants the city to figure out the problem as soon as possible. Buetzer said the city is on the case, but it could take some time yet.

"When we do these studies, we look at a number of factors -- changes in conditions, traffic counts, causes, time of day," he said. "We look at a lot. But before (the recent crashes), we hadn't seen any reason for change since the two-way conversion last year."

Buetzer said if significant reason is found to make a change at the intersection, it would likely be pitched at the department's September meeting.

But that might be too long to wait, Bloom said.

"They need to do something quickly," she said. "If nothing changes, (the accidents) will keep happening."