Whatchama Column
By Jeb Bladine

A 16-year-old Yamhill girl died in August on Highway 18 at Lafayette Highway. The News-Register editorial was resolute, but polite, in calling for a reduced speed limit along that stretch of Highway 18.

We’re not feeling so civil this week after a 13-year-old Dayton girl died on Highway 18 about 300 yards east of the August crash. This time, local officials and citizens should not accept statistical excuses for state inaction.

In September, an ODOT spokesman said: “Our top 10 percent SPIS reports, dating back to 2005, do not list the Highway 18/Lafayette Highway intersection. The crash rate history at that location is relatively low at 0.44.”

It’s time to forget the odds and think about real lives, and deaths. It’s time for state officials to get their heads out of the stat tables, travel to Highway 18 and Lafayette Highway, and see why more deaths are coming if nothing is done.

That’s the least we can ask in memory of Heather Snyder and Kalie Mosgrove.

Time and again, dangerous sections of Oregon highways have been improved by lowering the speed limit. We saw that simple action reduce deaths on Three Mile Lane and at McDougall’s Corner long before major projects provided more permanent safety improvements.

Will local officials and citizens become the necessary squeaky wheels? Will state officials respond? If not, the next death there will become the death of civility in related commentary.

Here’s what seems the best long-range solution, assisted by a view from Google Earth: Close the Ash Road intersection with Highway 18; extend Ash Road 300 yards west to connect with Lafayette Highway on the south side of Highway 18; put a traffic light at the intersection of Highway 18 and Lafayette Highway.

That would require significant financing, right-of-way acquisition, engineering and roadway construction. It’s a project that would take time, and it won’t happen without strong local lobbying.

Meanwhile, reducing the Highway 18 speed limit in that area is a no-brainer.

It would raise driver awareness and shrink the distances that vehicles travel during reaction time and braking. It would greatly reduce the momentum of catastrophic collisions. It would save lives.

Saving lives, not quoting statistics, is the mission at hand for ODOT. Local voices need to help them do the right thing.

Jeb Bladine is editor and publisher of the News-Register.