Rumble strips are already working

Published 1:49 pm Tuesday, July 29, 2008

We didn’t think the rumble strips on U.S. 2 were enough of a fix to warrant spending that kind of money when we really need a divided highway. Boy, were we ever wrong. Those rumble strips probably saved our lives. We want to thank everyone responsible for getting them installed so quickly.

We were driving westbound from Sultan on U.S. 2 about 4:45 p.m. July 20 in front of Monroe Gardens Nursery (near the west end of Fern Bluff Road) when a full-size car crossed the center line at full speed heading right at us. We hit the brakes and steered to the right, but the guard rail was preventing us from avoiding the impact. At the last moment, the big car swerved back to its side of the road and we were saved from a horrible collision. We were very shaken because we thought we were going to be killed and we couldn’t do anything to save ourselves.

We truly believe that the rumble strip woke up the other driver and allowed him to avoid us.

We want to thank the U.S. 2 Safety Coalition, the Washington State Department of Transportation, the Washington State Patrol, our legislators and everyone else who is working hard to make U.S. 2 a safer place to drive. We are alive today because of you. It’s unfortunate that you will never know the number of lives you are saving. Every improvement does make a difference; the sooner the better.

Jim and Laura Scharf