Nearly all WA lawmakers support bill to make deadly Tri-City highway safer

A state measure allowing officials to address a deadly stretch of highway near Pasco is nearly law.

The Washington state House voted 96-2 on Friday to approve Senate Bill 6066, which would let local governments create “crash prevention zones” on troubled roads.

The initial focus will be on Highway 395 between the Columbia River and Mesa. The dangerous stretch of divided highway between Pasco and Crestloch Road has claimed the lives of 12 people since 2015 and dozens of others have been hurt.

“We depend on our roads every single day,” said Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, the bill’s primary sponsor. “They are the paths that carry our children to school, parents to work, grandparents to doctor’s appointments and families home at the end of the day. When those paths become predictable sites of tragedy, government has a responsibility to act.”

Now that it has passed with amendments in the House, the bill will need to go back to Senate for final approval before going to governor for a signature. It initially passed in the Senate 46-3.

Torres has spearheaded the efforts in the senate to get the measure passed. It came after a deadly November wreck that sparked calls for officials to act.

The crash claimed the life of Perrie N. Robitaille, 77, just days before Thanksgiving. The Kahlotus councilman was part of a family with a long history of service to the rural farming community.

Robitaille was only the latest to be killed in the five-mile stretch of road.

“These are not just numbers,” Torres said in her release. “They represent families forever changed and a community asking why this keeps happening. When serious crashes continue in the same location, we cannot accept it as the cost of growth.”

The bill would allow Franklin County, the city of Pasco or Washington State Department of Transportation officials to designate the stretch of Highway 395 between the Columbia River and Mesa as a “crash prevention zone.”

The new designation would highlight the problem area and require officials to create plans to address the underlying causes of the deadly crashes.

There would also be increased enforcement on the stretch of highway, and double fines for drivers caught using a cellphone while driving in the zones.

Legislators and local leaders held a listening session following the November crash with more than 100 people calling for changes to the highway.

The measure has support from the City of Pasco, the Association of Washington Cities, the Washington Associations of Counties and Washington Counties Risk Pool.

Crash Prevention Zones

The bill initially gives the city, county, or Washington state Department of Transportation the ability to create a zone covering the area of Highway 395 between Pasco and Mesa, as well as two sections of Highway 12.

After 2029, local governments across the state will gain the ability to designate any public road marked by a “multitude of collisions” that have caused serious injuries or deaths.

Prior to creating the zone, there would need to be a public hearing allowing community members to see and comment on a map that shows the area included in the zone.

Once it’s put in place, the group requesting the zone, would need to conduct a traffic and engineering study to determine ways to make it safer.

It also calls on the Washington State Patrol and local police to coordinate increasing enforcement in those zones.

Once created, anyone caught using an electronic device while driving in the zone would pay doubled fines. That would be marked on road signs.

The additional money would be set aside to pay for engineering, traffic investigations, installing road signs, safety improvements or law enforcement patrols.

The zone can be dissolved once the improvements are made by the government agency that created it or by a petition of 10% of the property owners, businesses or residents in the area.

If approved and signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson, the crash prevention zone could be created as soon as this summer.

This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 2:38 PM.