City council will have to recognize and address the fact that the skyrocketing number of accidents at the Second and Fourth Avenue intersection is a problem, says the city's mayor.

Mayor Ernie Bourassa said in an interview Monday the statistics at the dicey intersection are quite telling, making it difficult for council to ignore.

'Well, I think Coun. (Dave) Austin has raised a very valuable point,' the mayor said.

'The statistics are quite telling ... if the intersection is not working, then we've got to bite the bullet and do something,' the mayor said.

Bourassa said while he doesn't favour the one-way street option for both avenues suggested by Austin last week, he does think something needs to be done.

'At this point, I can't commit to anything ... (but) perhaps a roundabout is an option to get traffic to slow down,' he said.

Last week, Austin said he was concerned about the number of accidents which, according to the Yukon government's motor vehicles branch, has three times the number of accidents in 2006 than any other local intersection.

'There has to be some changes there; there just has to be,' Austin told his fellow members of council at last week's meeting.

In May 2005, the city instituted a double turning lane at the intersection.

According to the government, between Jan. 1 and May 1 of this year, the intersection experienced 16 accidents.

Other intersections in the city, according to the motor vehicles branch, have experienced fewer than five accidents between January and May.

According to motor vehicle branch statistics, accident rates at the intersection almost doubled between 2004 and 2005, from 13 to 23 respectively.

Accident rates started to spike in May of last year.

Brian Crist, the city's director of operations, said Monday the intersection has been recognized as a problem and was to be discussed today at a traffic committee meeting, which will involve city and RCMP officials.

Responding to questions from the Star, Crist said he does find the accident figures at the intersection to be a problem.

'I would call (the statistics) concerning,' he said.

'I've raised the issue with the engineering manger, Wayne Tuck ... we'll definitely be looking at options for changes there,' he said.

Crist said the city wanted to wait a full year after the May 2005 changes to see if drivers would have become accustomed to the new changes.

'Normally it takes a while for drivers to get used to the changes ... these changes have not normalized and we've been into it for a year now,' he said.

Crist said changes at the intersection could involve changing the intersection back to having only one left-hand turning lane.

'We could make that lane a dedicated left-hand turning lane. That way drivers could only turn on the green arrow and when the arrow's red, they couldn't go,' he said.

Crist said the majority of collision reports listed driver error as the cause of many of the accidents but conceded accident reports did not have a section to list infrastructure problems as a cause.