A man died near a Boise day care center. Neighbors push to slow traffic
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Neighbors push ACHD to speed up roundabout design after 2024 fatal crash.
- ACHD schedules design for 2028; staff say data does not yet justify build.
- District added pedestrian flags and signage; project estimated at $5.5 million.
A motorcycle crashed into the side of a garbage truck feet away from a day care center in Southeast Boise in 2024, killing the bike’s rider. The crash and other traffic concerns prompted neighbors to push to expedite a planned roundabout.
Drivers often speed through the heavily pedestrian area, which is near schools and a Greenbelt connection, according to neighbors and two Ada County Highway District commissioners. The roundabout would help slow things down, said Commissioner Patricia Nilsson, whose district includes the area.
The intersection is where South Millbrook Way meets East Warm Springs Avenue.
“I wouldn’t say we need a roundabout because there was that specific fatal crash there,” Nilsson said in a phone interview, “but that there’s behaviors that need to be influenced by the engineering of the road.”
ACHD is scheduled to start design work in 2028, after it was originally slated for 2029. But neighbors want it even faster to alleviate fear and frustration.
“In recent years, Warm Springs has become increasingly dangerous,” Kimberlee Smith, who said she lives near the site of the 2024 crash, wrote in an email to the highway district. “Cars and, most often, loud and fast motorcycles regularly race down this section at extreme speeds. My parents now refuse to drive through that intersection, because they no longer feel safe.”
But a staff member with the highway district questioned the need in an internal email.
ACHD: Crash, traffic data don’t justify a roundabout — yet
“I don’t think this improvement is warranted today from a capacity standpoint,” wrote Christy Little, development services manager, in an email the Idaho Statesman obtained through a records request.
Little was responding to a question about using impact fees for the roundabout, district spokesperson Rachel Bjornestad said in an email. But the roundabout probably isn’t warranted right now based on criteria like crash and traffic data, she said. The intersection saw six crashes from 2021 to 2023, according to internal data Bjornestad shared with the Statesman.
However, by the time it’s built or shortly after, it will be needed, Bjornestad said.
The garbage-truck driver pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in 2025 after police determined the motorcyclist had the right of way.
But the driver’s sentencing memorandum, written by his lawyer, suggested he wasn’t entirely at fault. The memorandum said that the collision was the product of a “miscalculation ... any driver can make,” and that nearby residents had raised issues with the intersection before the crash. The driver waited at the stop sign, the memo said, and then he drove into the intersection. Once he saw the motorcyclist, the driver sped up to clear the area before the motorcycle arrived.
“Even a responsible driver can make such a mistake as occurred here,” the memorandum said.
In 2025, that intersection saw two crashes, neither fatal, according to a Boise Police Department presentation at the Barber Valley Neighborhood Association meeting on Thursday, Jan. 8.
It’s unclear when the roundabout’s construction would begin. The project’s cost is estimated at $5.5 million, according to Bjornestad.
After the fatal crash, the highway district added orange flags for pedestrians to carry and “Cross Traffic Does Not Stop” signs on Millbrook, Bjornestad said. In its next five-year plan, the district will look for ways to expedite the project, she said.
There’s a problem at the intersection, but other needs are a priority, said Alexis Pickering, vice president of the highway district commission.
“The neighborhood’s been very clear that this is a problem,” Pickering said in a phone interview. “It’s on our radar. We share the neighborhood’s concerns.”
