A grass-roots group is urging state lawmakers to chip in $700,000 for a traffic improvement study on U.S. 2 following several recent fatalities on the two-lane highway.
“The state needs to step up and contribute” to the study, said Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser, who leads the U.S. 2 Safety Coalition, which has about 30 members.
The funding is needed to finish the study on a 45-mile section of U.S. 2 between Snohomish and Skykomish to identify specific problems and plan improvements for the road, Walser said.
| U.S. 2 fatalities On Dec. 27, a head-on collision killed Dick Withee, 58, of Gold Bar after an oncoming car reportedly crossed the centerline and crashed into his vehicle on U.S. 2 about two miles east of Snohomish. * On Jan. 2, another head-on collision killed Dick Montgomery, 56, of Monroe and Roy Griffin, 76, of Gold Bar on U.S. 2 east of Monroe. Griffin crossed the centerline and slammed into Montgomery’s vehicle, police said. * From 1994 through 2003, 65 people died on U.S. 2 in Snohomish and King counties. Seventeen of them died in head-on collisions along undivided parts of the highway. |
The state Department of Transportation started the $1.2 million study in October and aims to wrap it up in spring 2007. Once the study is done, the coalition can start seeking funding for actual improvements, Walser said.
The Transportation Department has secured about $540,000 for the study from federal funding and the Puget Sound Regional Council, a regional government entity, Walser said.
U.S. 2 is a federal highway, but state lawmakers should help the study because the state maintains the road and recognizes it as a highway of statewide significance, he added.
In Olympia, the House Transportation Committee may discuss in February whether to include the funding for U.S. 2 in its 2007 budget, said state Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, who said he is working with Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, to acquire funding.
“It’s acknowledged by everyone we spoke to down here that this is a problem we need to solve,” Kristiansen said.
He said $700,000 is a small amount of money compared with funding requests for other transportation projects in the state, such as I-5 improvements.
The state’s 9.5-cent gas tax increase, approved in 2005, doesn’t fund any U.S. 2 improvements, while state roads such as Highway 522 and Highway 9 are receiving some of that money.
U.S. 2 is notorious for fatal accidents. From 1994 through 2003, the highway claimed 65 lives in Snohomish and King counties, according to data from U.S. Department of Transportation. Of those fatalities, 17 people died in head-on collisions.
Walser created the safety coalition, which includes government officials and residents in Sky Valley area, after his assistant, Donna Newquist-Moore, was killed in an accident on Sept. 16, 1997 – Walser’s birthday.
In 2004, no fatal accidents were reported on U.S. 2 in Snohomish County, Walser said.
“That was just luck,” he said adding that there were numerous injury accidents.
Fatal head-on collisions Dec. 27 and Jan. 2 took three lives. Kristiansen said he knew Dick Montgomery, one of the victims. More than 1,000 people attended the funeral of Montgomery, who fostered and adopted 13 children while raising four biological children.
“We hear these accidents happen all the time,” Kristiansen said.
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