From The Press of Atlantic City — Police on Thursday identified a woman killed Wednesday in a car crash at Duerer Street and Bremen Avenue.

Joyce F. Gurian, 57, of Bloomfield, Essex County, was the third person to die in a car crash during the past two weeks within about 6.5 square miles in the northwest area of the township, known as Cologne and Germania. One intersection was problematic enough to prompt upgrades in 2007, one hasn’t been studied recently and one never had an accident before, officials said.

Gurian pulled onto Duerer Street from a stop sign on Bremen Avenue in front of an eastbound SUV, which struck the driver’s side of Gurian’s car at about 10:14 a.m. Wednesday, according to an accident report released Thursday by Galloway police.

The SUV was driven by 34-year-old Dana M. Beatty, of Egg Harbor City, who was taken with her two young children to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus, in Atlantic City, police said. They were examined and released that day, hospital personnel said.

Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, according to the report released Thursday.

As many as 24 fatalities have happened in a year along Galloway’s 350 miles of roadway during Cpl. Troy Midgette’s career. As a traffic control technician, Midgette studies intersections throughout Galloway to determine whether more enforcement or different signals would decrease crashes.

Last year, warning signs, a guard rail, flashing red lights and other improvements were added to the Bremen Avenue stop at Duerer Street, Midgette said.

A crash that killed Gertrude Jones, 85, of Galloway, on Oct. 3 was the first at Liebig Street and Mannheim Avenue. It takes more than five accidents at one junction within a year to spur further inspection, he said.

Martha Perez, 66, of Linwood, was killed Sept. 30 at Route 30 and Frankfurt Avenue. Another car rear-ended Perez while she was making a left turn from Route 30, and she was pushed into oncoming traffic, where two other vehicles struck her Jeep, police said.

Such rear-end crashes occur frequently along the White Horse Pike, Midgette said. That specific intersection has not been reviewed for potential safety upgrades for years, he said.

Whether the accident is fatal or causes injuries doesn’t affect whether an intersection is studied further or gets new signs or lights. In fact, few factors differ between a fatal crash and one that allows everyone involved to walk away unscathed, he said.

It takes just one element – speed, reaction time, the angle of impact or another – to change the fates of drivers and passengers, he said.

The area surrounding the White Horse Pike and Pomona Road is a dramatic example: 80 collisions occur yearly there. In 1998, none were fatal. Five people died in auto wrecks during 2000, Midgette said.

Funding has been approved since 2000 for the widening project aimed at making the intersection safer. It went out to bid last week, he said.

“It’s time-intensive, but if you never start anything, you never get anything done,” Midgette said.