FORT YATES - Cars, buses, kids and commuters are getting all tangled up at the intersection going into Fort Yates. Future growth on the far side of the intersection means it's only going to get worse.

A study is under way with an eye toward more safety and public meetings were held Tuesday at Fort Yates.

With the public school and the Sitting Bull College both expanding west of Highway 24, more than a couple thousand people will be moving through the intersection to work and school.

Traffic counts on Highway 24 and the "T" intersection road of BIA 31 going into Fort Yates are already between 4,000 and 5,000 and the elementary school and several more campus buildings are still to come.

It's likely that only small remedies will be made soon. A major re-do of the intersection will probably take at least two years and cost in the range of $5 million.

There have been five reported accidents at the intersection since 2001. One was a fatality.

On Tuesday, a white compact car was totaled a half-mile north of the intersection with black skid marks to show where it careened out of control and hit an approach.

Richard Lane, an engineer with SRF Consulting Group of Fargo, said he's told there are a number of more minor fender-benders and read-enders at the intersection that don't get reported. The State Department of Transportation hired SRF to study the problem and make recommendations come fall.

The posted speed limit is 40 mph, but the average driver goes about 65 mph, Lane said.

"The speed is the hardest to cure,"" Lane said.

Tribal councilman Henry Harrison said the intersection is "really congested" and will soon get worse with education and housing developments planned for the land west of the highway. Fort Yates has to expand out at the highway because the platted town site a mile off the main road is surrounded by Lake Oahe east and a crescent-shaped floodway all other directions.

Elliot Ward, manager of the tribe's human resources department, said he comes to work on Highway 24 and watches traffic "fly downhill" toward the intersection. "Then you've got the buses, and it backs everything up."

Ward said he'd like to see more ways into Fort Yates, north and south of the intersection, to prevent all the traffic from building up at one critical place.

"It needs to be solved," Ward said.

Mike Collins, of Standing Rock, told the consultants he's concerned about skateboarders, people on bicycles and pedestrians trying to move through the intersection.

LaRay Skinner, who's the reservation's injury prevention coordinator, said on a scale of 1 to 10, she considers the intersection a scale-topping 11.

People are pulling out and passing, she said, and she sees too many children who aren't buckled in.

More law enforcement would help, Skinner said.

Lane said a bypass for through traffic would be ideal, but terrain, money and traffic numbers make it unlikely.

The solution may be to widen the highway, add dedicated turning lanes and possibly install signal lights, Lane said.

A frontage road paralleling the highway would help keep school, college and housing traffic off the highway.

Lane said he expects recommendations will be made in October. Funding would come from the DOT and the BIA, he said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)