KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat A three-car accident occurred yesterday one block north of a failing stoplight at East Speedway Boulevard and North Park Avenue while drivers stepped out of their cars to size up the bumper to bumper traffic delay. One UA student driving a red Pontiac was involved with the collision.

A malfunctioning traffic light at Speedway Boulevard and Park Avenue may have caused the traffic accident

UA traffic was stalled in the northwest corner of campus, between a malfunctioning stoplight and a traffic accident in which a car traveling westbound on East Helen Street collided with a car going west on North Park Avenue.

Both cars spun, one of which collided with another car waiting at a malfunctioning traffic light yesterday at 3:15 p.m.

Of the cars involved ÷ a red Pontiac, a tan four-door sedan and a white Toyota ÷ only the Toyota had to be towed away.

Nobody was hurt, said Tucson Police Department officer Jim Markes, a 1990 UA graduate.

The driver of the Pontiac, UA student Chris Likins (no relation to President Peter Likins) pulled out from a stop sign at the intersection of North Park Avenue and East Helen Street and was clipped by the driver of the Toyota, who was going the speed limit, Markes said.

The driver declined to comment.

At about the same time the accident occurred yesterday, the traffic light at East Speedway Boulevard and North Park Avenue stopped working.

Shortly after the accident, Tucson Police Department officers were directing traffic at the intersection of S peedway Boulevard and Park Avenue.

The congestion may have contributed to the accident, but Tucson police are not sure.

"He failed to yield, though he might not have been able to see her," Markes said. He added that traffic, backed up blocks north of East Speedway Boulevard, may have obstructed the driver's view.

An officer from TPD reported the malfunctioning traffic light at 3:30 p.m. The traffic light was working again by 3:56, said TPD officer Kathy Wendling, a public information officer.

"I was just coming out into traffic, she was coming the other way and I was clipped. It's just a bullshit thing on the first day you have a class," said Likins, a psychology junior.

The volume of traffic on East Speedway Boulevard has been high recently, said Jim Martin, TPD lead officer at the scene.

"We have found nothing but bumper to bumper traffic," Martin said.

Nearby cars overflowed from a full Park Avenue Garage, forcing some permit holders to park elsewhere.

"Basically, on the corner of Park and Helen I see a girl coming from Speedway and he (Likins) is coming out from Helen. She doesn't slow and he spins into the edge of my car," said Tim Valenzuela, the driver of the sedan and a computer sciences senior.

The cars were out of the way of traffic, including the Toyota, which ended up on the sidewalk near the stop sign.