Heed Franklin County’s plea for help for Highway 395 ‘death trap’ | Editorial

At least 12 people have died and countless others injured since 2015 on a 5-mile stretch of Highway 395 north of Pasco.

That is the grim tally where motorists try to cross a four-lane, divided highway while trucks and cars rush toward them at 70 mph or more. We join Franklin County commissioners in calling for help.

The community has watched a local road transform into a high-speed industrial freight corridor whose safety infrastructure is stuck in the past century.

On Nov. 26, commissioners endorsed a letter to the Washington State Patrol, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration demanding intervention. It is an overdue call on behalf of travelers in the Tri-Cities.

“It’s something that keeps all of our families and my neighbors up at night. It’s a death trap,” said Commissioner Clint Didier.

The most recent, high-profile tragedy struck on Nov. 25. Kahlotus City Councilman Perrie Robitaille died in a crash while attempting to drive across Highway 395 at East Vineyard Road. An oncoming SUV struck his car.

Days earlier, a driver was seriously injured at Crestloch Road. In August, a Richland mother and her teen daughter died in a crash at Foster Wells Road.

The Washington State Patrol reports more than 250 crashes between King City and Crestloch. Eighty caused injuries, nine serious.

Multiple factors contribute to the danger. Commercial freight trucks barrel along at highway speeds, unable to stop when a vehicle jumps in front of them.

Heavy commuter traffic during peak hours leaves scant gaps, tempting impatient drivers to take dangerous chances. And slow-moving agricultural equipment must cross the highway to reach fields and markets.

Drivers attempting to gauge gaps in traffic from country roads must make a difficult calculation, one that too many have gotten fatally wrong.

When the highway was built, this was a rural area that did not need as much traffic control. Commercial development and its accompanying traffic changed that.

The Tri-Cities’ rapid growth has outpaced infrastructure designed for past decades. When Highway 395 was widened to four lanes in the 1990s, only some crossings received interchanges. That might have been economical, but the record of crashes proves it was unwise.

County commissioners have asked state and federal officials to take three reasonable steps. First, increase enforcement in the area. If police start pulling over speeders and reckless drivers, traffic might at least slow down to posted limits.

Second, they want a formal traffic review. Accurate data about volume, speed and safety is essential to planning permanent solutions. And third, they want funding. None of this will be cheap.

Those are not difficult requests, at least not the first two. They deserve immediate attention. Money in a cash-strapped state, however, is a challenge.

In 2020, WSDOT tried to improve things with acceleration lanes and turn pockets. Those were improvements, but only minor ones that fit within the budget. As the recent string of fatalities proves, paint and pavement cannot fix the fundamental flaw of allowing cars to cross a 70-mph expressway at grade.

Reducing speed limits in the corridor would leave more reaction time for drivers and reduce collision severity. Traffic signals and high-speed roundabouts are worth considering.

Expensive grade separation might be the only permanent, effective solution. WSDOT spent $19.1 million on the Ridgeline Drive interchange in Kennewick, and more complex projects would be more expensive.

Frontage roads are also a possibility, though they would not resolve crossing issues and are expensive.

J-turns, which force crossing traffic into a U-turn instead of a direct left, could physically prevent deadly T-bone crashes like the one that killed Robitaille.

As Commissioner Didier noted, “Either way it’s going to be a lot of money, but lives are worth more than money.”

Commissioners have pledged to assist with data collection, traffic control planning and community outreach. State and federal transportation officials should match that collaborative spirit and act with due haste.

Meanwhile, the local legislative delegation should champion this cause in Olympia. Any delay will inevitably mean more crashes, more injuries and more deaths.