Message from the Idaho Office of Highway Safety – Quick Notes June 2014

The 100 days between the Memorial and Labor Day holidays is the deadliest time for crashes on Idaho roads, according to statistics collected by the Idaho Transportation Department. The increase in crashes comes despite the fact that driving and road conditions are often at their best. Those are the most dangerous days because along with those better road conditions and warmer summer temperatures, there also are more people out on the roads recreating, school is out so more young drivers are using the roads, and more bicyclists and motorcycles are on the highways. The 100 days between Memorial and Labor Day represents 28 percent of the days in the year, yet in 2012, those days accounted for 40 percent of fatal crashes.

This summer please share the 100 deadliest days message. Billboards are placed around the state, posters are available for partners and agencies, sample social media messages and other tools are also available. To order posters or to receive the sample social media messages, contact Lisa Losness lisa.losness@itd.idaho.gov, 208-334-8103.

Safety Spotlight:

The Cavendish Highway is one of three roads of great importance to the county as it provides a major collector to the Cavendish/Sunnyside areas, a route that links Clearwater County to the cities of Kendrick and Moscow , and has provided an alternative route for State Highway 12.

There are several locations where the slope of the fill is several hundred feet and at a slope of 1:1 or greater. Although Clearwater County Road & Bridge has been able to upgrade a small section of the guardrail , it was unable to finish the necessary repairs due to lack of funding.  Since 2005 there have been 35 recorded crashes on this Highway, and 27 of that 35 are lane departures.  Within those 27 lane departures there has been 1 Fatality, 2 Serious (A) Injuries, 7 Evident (B) Injuries, 8 Possible (C) Injuries, as well as 9 Property Damages.

This Safety Improvement Project includes installing and upgrading guardrails on a 5 mile section of Cavendish Highway. The safety objectives of this project is to reduce the amount of injuries and fatalities on this road.

The Local Highway Technical Assistance Council has recently started the design process on this project and construction is scheduled to begin as early as Fiscal Year 2015.