PASCO, Wash. – After two fatal car crashes in a week, Franklin County and the Washington State Department of Transportation are looking at the intersection and want to know what they can do so to make it safer for drivers.
According to the WSDOT, 11 people have died on Franklin County roads this year. Three of those happened on Highway 395 and Crest Loch.
Mike Gonzalez the Franklin County Administrator said his heart goes out to the families.
“Anytime they’re involved in a crash and a life is lost, you know certainly our prayers go out to the families first of all before anything,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said he thinks crashes at this intersection are common because “One of the factors is you have a straight road where people go extremely fast and sometimes it’s difficult to gauge just how fast those vehicles are coming especially when you’re trying to get into the middle lane.”
Gonzalez said county officials are looking into how to improve the intersection.
“We have to figure out are there factors we can control?” “Are there easements that we can control?” said Gonzalez
WSDOT Communications Manager Meagan Lott said WSDOT’s main priority is the safety of drivers. Lott said the WSDOT’s traffic office is going to be going to the intersection and review some things like the speed limit and maybe even reduce it.
“We’re also going to evaluate opportunities to increase maybe the site distance for those drivers that are traveling off the side roads like Crest Loch,” said Lott.
Lott said they also are looking into putting up more signs to make sure drivers know to yield to traffic.
Lott said drivers need to be paying attention to what they’re doing.
“Making sure when they’re turning on or off one of those side streets or they’re crossing traffic across 395 to make sure they’re looking both ways,” said Lott.
The highway is built so that drivers can cross two lanes of the highway to get to an area before crossing or turning on the other two lanes.
