FARMVILLE — There were more traffic accidents at the intersection of South Main and Peery Drive than anywhere else in Farmville in 2013.

And they were so preventable.

How?

Stop.

Running.

Red lights.

It’s that simple.

The high volume intersection’s traffic flow is governed by traffic signals that, if obeyed by motorists, would allow safe passage for all.

But impatience gets the better of too many drivers and they run right into the law of physics that states two bodies cannot occupy the same space simultaneously.

Something’s got to give.

And it’s usually fenders.

“The bulk of them,” Police Chief Doug Mooney told Town Council this month, “are people trying to beat the light, or running the red light.”

The 10 accidents were four more than any other location.

Police aren’t startled by the fact the intersection topped the accident hit list.

“The high traffic crash intersection isn’t a surprise,” Chief Mooney said.

Nor have police been ignoring the intersection and it’s impulsively compulsive navigators.

Officers, the police chief advised council members, have been working that intersection and “have written a number of tickets there and given out a number of warnings.”

Town-wide, there were a total of 102 traffic accidents last year, according to the police chief’s year-end report to council, an increase of 21 over the very low 81 accidents in 2012 but “still low,” Chief Mooney said.

The increase in total damages created by the crashes reflects the additional accidents, with $586,850 in damages last year, a substantial rise over the $408,500 in 2012.

The other intersections noted in Chief Mooney’s report are South Main Street and Griffin Boulevard and South Main Street and Clark Street, with six accidents at each, followed by the four accidents apiece at South Main Street and Milnwood Road, West Third Street and North Street and West Third Street and Agee Street, three accidents at South Main Street and Reed Street, and one accident at South Main Street and Gilliam Drive.

In 2012, the most accidents occurred just a block down from 2013’s accident vortex. There were 10 accidents at South Main Street and Milnwood last year.

So South Main is a stretch of road—busy as it is with shopping centers, businesses, and restaurants on both sides of the highway—which invites motorists to observe and act upon the different messages conveyed by green, yellow and red traffic lights.

Otherwise the blue lights will come flashing.

And a different sort of red light, one belonging to an ambulance, may follow.

A look at accidents by the month shows April to be the cruelest, with 16 crashes, followed by 14 in August and 12 in November.

The month with the fewest traffic accidents was December, which saw only three of them.