Screech! Crash! Bang! This automotive collision chronicler has been snapping footage of the (many) by his home.

SOMERVILLE — At any second, however normally in the course of the white-knuckle rush hour, Ari Iaccarino is ready to listen to the acquainted crunch of metallic on metallic.

All it takes is one other blown pink gentle, or a reckless left flip, and a few new mixture of automobiles will skid, spin, smash on the busy crossroads at Somerville’s western edge the place Mystic Valley Parkway, often known as Route 16, meets Boston Avenue.

He sees all of it proper exterior his window: A Prius, nostril pushed in and pointed sideways on the grass. A upkeep van, its entrance bumper melded with the again of a Subaru. A wrecked sedan with its trunk crumpled, stressed-out proprietor with hand on brow.

It’s the identical factor time and again and it’s driving him loopy, similar to it has for a slew of neighbors and elected leaders for years.

A lot of automobiles crash in plenty of intersections, however Iaccarino believes this one stands out.

Since he moved in 2 1/2 years in the past, information from the Massachusetts Division of Transportation present there have been 23 crashes at that intersection, though officers warning that quantity could also be incomplete. MassDOT has dubbed it one of many state’s “high crash places.”

In an interview, Judy Pineda Neufeld, a metropolis councilor whose ward contains the intersection, referred to as it “one of many worst within the metropolis.” Joe Curtatone, Somerville’s mayor from 2004 to 2022, stated even throughout his time period it was “a kind of intersections you inform your youngsters to concentrate to.”

Ever since he moved to his spot overlooking the intersection, Iaccarino has been complaining to the state’s Division of Conservation and Recreation that one thing wanted to be achieved. (Requested concerning the intersection, a metropolis spokesperson deferred to DCR.)

“Don’t take my phrase for it,” he stated on a current afternoon, peering out over this busy crossroads. “Take a look at the images.”

There are lots of, many images.

For greater than two years, Iaccarino has been meticulously documenting crashes right here, hoping the quantity of proof would transfer state officers to make modifications he believes would save numerous bumpers — and perhaps even lives.

Now, there may be information to have fun. As a part of deliberate upkeep, state officers stated this month that security updates can be put in as early as this summer time.

Iaccarino stated it’s lengthy overdue, as this spot has been hassle for years, with too many automobiles attempting to crisscross a too-busy roadway abruptly.

“I might drive by this yellow home and suppose, man, it could suck to dwell there with all of the site visitors and potential accidents,” he stated. Then destiny introduced them collectively two years in the past. “This was the one [apartment] open at an inexpensive worth. It’s humorous how life works out like that.”

Now, “gainfully unemployed” as he describes it, he works from a house workplace that overlooks the intersection, the place large home windows give it the texture of an air-traffic controller tower — solely with agitated commuters as an alternative of pilots and an atmosphere the place he has zero sway over the chaos beneath.

“I really feel like I’m operating Newark Airport over right here,” he stated, referring to the New Jersey transit hub just lately stricken by issues of safety. “You’re simply going, ‘When is the following time it’s gonna occur?’”

When Iaccarino hears, or sees, a crash, he races to the window to snap images on his telephone. Then he heads exterior, the place he talks to the homeowners of the automobiles and urges them to complain to the state.

“I truly wrote to DCR and my reps a fairly pissed off e-mail after my pet and I virtually obtained hit right here,” he stated. “Should you guys don’t put up a ‘no proper on pink signal,’ I’ll.”

He posts the images on Fb, the place his slideshows of destruction are well-received by neighbors and drivers acquainted with the roadway.

Few others have paid as a lot consideration to the chaos.

Besides Sam Lakkis, who owns the Sam’s Fuel service station that can be wedged into the intersection. “There’s all the time an accident,” Lakkis stated, waving a cigarette on the roadway.

Lakkis stated he tells mechanics to not drive via it and makes them do street exams for automobiles within the store elsewhere.

“I witness it. I do know it’s dangerous,” he stated.

A chewed up site visitors pole in a single nook, scraped repeatedly by oncoming automobiles, is a reminder to not stand too near the street whereas ready to cross the crosswalk, as are the items of obliterated headlights that litter the grass.

“We’ve tailored to it,” stated Iaccarino’s neighbor Sonny Hadley, who lives upstairs. “We all know the do’s and don’ts. However I’m extra in worry of one thing occurring to another person.”

Change is coming. A DCR spokesperson stated late final week that company engineers studied the intersection and would add “a number of security enchancment measures” to it, alongside modifications on different elements of the parkway. They embody a brand new left-turn arrow, extra time added between when lights within the intersection flip from pink to inexperienced, and new cameras that can be utilized to assist modify the timing additional, as wanted. DCR may even put up new “yield to pedestrian” signage.

That each one has the help of Iaccarino, though he stated he nonetheless needs “no activate pink” indicators put in. (DCR stated it could examine the doable influence of doing so and take into account including these, too, which might doubtless gradual site visitors within the often-gridlocked strip of street.)

“Nice information!” he stated in an e-mail when he heard of the plan. “Typically the most effective compromise is one the place everybody doesn’t stroll away with every little thing they need.”

At the least they get to stroll away.