Could Route 1A be Straightened?

The sharp turn on Route 1A around Wenham Lake has been the scene of about a half dozen fatal crashes in the past three decades, including last week's head-on crash that killed a 61-year-old motorcyclist.

That's according to Wenham Police Chief Thomas Perkins, who has been on the department for 28 years.

Most of the crashes were eventually determined to be operator error, Perkins said and a few were caused by the onset of a medical condition prior to the
crash, he said

"Regardless the cause, the result is always tragic, up to and including last week's crash," Perkins said. "Such an event impacts so many people in such a sad way."

The crash on Nov. 21 remains under investigation and no further details about the cause have been released, according to Carrie Kimball-Monahan, spokesman for the Essex County District Attorney's office.

Steven Daly of North Andover was riding a motorcycle that collided head-on with a lumber truck on the sharp corner, just a few feet north of the intersection with Great Pond Road.

So is there a way the road could be straightened? There was a plan in the early 1970s to straightened the road across Wenham Lake. It is outlined in a history of the lake assembled in 2012 by Jack Hauck and on file at Hamilton-Wenham Library.

The plan predates Perkins time of the Police Department, he said, and he has not heard of it in recent years. Michael Verseckes, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the plan is not under consideration.