When a chain of car collisions earlier this year at U.S. Highway 101 and Kitchen-Dick Road hospitalized a Sequim woman for two weeks, she instantly became a statistic.
Jordana Wood, who suffered multiple injuries Feb. 18 when a car hit her as she helped victims of another crash, is one of several people who have been injured at what authorities say is a hot spot on the North Olympic Peninsula for vehicle collisions.
“It has a reputation of being one of the more dangerous intersections in the county,” Clallam County Traffic Safety Task Force Coordinator Jim Borte said.
The intersection of Highway 101 and Kitchen-Dick Road, west of Sequim, had the second-highest number of collisions on rural Clallam County highways in 1999 and 2000, according to the most recent statistics available from the state Department of Transportation.
Only the intersection of Highway 101 with O’Brien Road and Old Olympic Highway east of Port Angeles had more collisions in the two-year period, with 23 accidents compared to 11 at Kitchen-Dick Road.
But both intersections are surpassed in the number of crashes by a Jefferson County intersection.
Twenty-five collisions have occurred on state Highway 104 at the intersection of state Route 19-Beaver Valley Road than at any other rural highway location during the two years on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Crashes at this intersection during the two-year span resulted in two deaths.
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The rest of this Sunday Showcase appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
