Groups looking for safety on Highway 26

Number of accidents appear to be decreasing on roadway

OTHELLO — Safety has been given particular care for the 20-mile stretch of road centered in Othello. Law enforcement organizations have seen a drop in serious accidents, and engineers are looking at projects aimed at making driving safer along Highway 26.

This length of highway was designated last November as the Highway 26 Traffic Safety Project, and project committee chair LuAnn Morgan said the committee is now getting the ball rolling on the group's action plan. Traffic enforcement officers with the Othello Police Department, Adams County Sheriff's Office and Washington State Patrol have put a special emphasis on the roadway in the last six months.

"So far, it seems to be making a difference," Morgan said.

The section of Highway 26 surrounding Othello has seen more accidents than roads with similar characteristics throughout the state, and was given a two-year designation as a safety corridor. That designation comes soon after the recent success of a similar program on Highway 17.

Morgan said law enforcement agencies are writing fewer citations to area residents since the kick-off, and a stretch of road that was seeing a serious accident almost on a weekly basis is now seeing a drop in those more serious accidents. Accidents that do happen, Morgan said, tend to be more of the fender bender variety.

"People who live out there have reported that traffic seems to be slowing down," Morgan said of residents living alongside the roadway.

To achieve their goal of a safer roadway, the project's committee is emphasizing safety through enforcement, engineering and education. Othello Police Chief Ron Axton said his officers have put quite a few hours of emphasis and enforcement the roadway, and he just received a letter from one of his sergeants saying those efforts are doing a good job.

Adams County Undersheriff Kevin Fuhr said his deputies have also put an emphasis the enforcement end of the project. In a period of emphasis along the project stretching from January through March of this year, Fuhr said deputies made 101 contacts, gave out 42 infractions, made two arrests and issued four criminal citations. Fuhr said his deputies and WSP troopers also try to hold people to the speed limit on the highway.

"Hopefully people are getting educated on what they should and shouldn't be doing," Fuhr said.

The Washington Department of Transportation has several options in the works for an engineering solution to the project. George Stuart with traffic operations at DOT said the department as plans to add shoulder rumble strips along the side of the roadway by 2007. Also in 2007, the DOT is planning to add two left turn lanes to different intersections on the road. Stuart said the idea of altering the speed limit along the corridor has come up in meetings, but said the DOT doesn't think any change would be appropriate at this time.

For now, the roadway does have safety corridor signs up along the 20-mile stretch to remind people of the project, which Stuart said does alert people to what his and other groups are doing on the roadway.

Members of the project committee have met once a month for the past year to discuss plans for the corridor project. Their next meeting will be at 10 a.m. May 26 at the Othello Fire Station.