This May Be the Most Dangerous Left Turn in Casper and This Is Why
There are quite a few "less than safe" left turns in and around the Casper area, but I am convinced, this is the worst.
Tuesday, June 14th, 2022
A group of my coworkers and I were taking the station vehicles to get washed and cleaned up.
I was driving the KissMobile and was second in our 4-car convoy. It was around 5:00 pm, which is as close to city-style, rush hour traffic that Casper ever sees. As we rolled through the Wyoming Boulevard intersection on 2nd Street and attempted to make a left turn into Let'Er Buck Car Wash is where the problem presented itself.
While I was aware at how nigh impossible it is to make a left turn leaving that establishment, I had forgotten how equally difficult it was to make a left turn into the business.
Usually, I just go down to Walmart, turn around and then easily make the right. That's the smarter way to do it, but my brain had left me this day for some reason.
As I bid my time, waiting for traffic to subside long enough to make the left turn, our lead car was coming out of the car wash, already clean, which means, I had been waiting to make that turn at least five minutes (and probably a good three light changes, so maybe even longer).
Again, it was Casper rush hour and on one of the two busiest streets in town, so I will definitely concede that the situation was my own fault. That being said, most of the oncoming traffic either was oblivious to my plight or just too evil (or in a hurry), to care.
Heroes
However, one lovely lady stopped the closest lane of traffic to let me turn and after another couple of cars, someone in the other lane followed suit. So to both of those angels, thank you for your kindness.
Why is this the most dangerous intersection though?
The reason, in my humble opinion, that this is the most dangerous left turn in Casper is simple: there isn't a real left turn lane. As a matter of fact, it's dangerously close to the real turning lane on Wyoming Blvd.
Also, it's on the bottom portion of an incline (see also: hill). For people doing the speed limit, it's not overly dangerous, but I observed quite a few people going around 5-10 mile per hour over the limit coming down that hill.
I have also personally witnessed quite a few vehicle accidents at that exact spot. If you use Google Street View, there is an actual accident at that spot as the Google-Mobile was getting the footage (see photo below).
This is just my opinion, but do you agree?
There is a really close runner-up for most dangerous left turn at the intersection of Center and West E Street (see photo below).