SEQUIM — The spot is known to the State Patrol and the state Department of Transportation as SR101 MP269.18.
It is where three serious car crashes have occurred since April within 25 yards of each other on U.S. Highway 101, east of the entrance to Sequim Bay State Park.
All were traveling west on the highway.
In two of them, occurring 16 days apart in April, the same hemlock tree was hit.
One man died there on April 27 — Howard LeRoy Fisher, 68, of Port Angeles.
Four others have been hospitalized after wrecks there, including two taken to the region’s trauma hospital in Seattle — Harborview Medical Center — with serious injuries.
Both State Patrol and Transportation officials are considering ways to make the stretch of road safer.
Even before this year’s crashes, that area of Highway 101 approaching Sequim from the east had been placed on a “high accident corridor” list that Transportation compiles every other year.
Speculations
Readers of the Peninsula Daily News have written or called to speculate as to why three car crashes would occur at essentially the same place on an otherwise unremarkable roadway.
The speculations include deer or elk on the road, a roadside memorial to Fisher distracting drivers and a slight dip in the road felt by semi-truck drivers that they say seems to grab hold of vehicles and pull them to the right.
But Transportation and State Patrol officials contend that there is no obvious cause placing drivers at risk and that the three crashes are just an odd coincidence.
“I’ve talked to State Patrol and maintenance folks up there and nobody has a really good idea why this is happening,” said Steve Bennett, a traffic operations engineer in the state Department of Transportation’s Tumwater office.
Lt. Clint Casebolt of the State Patrol said that while the area has been known to host wildlife, collisions with animals have decreased in recent years and there was no evidence at any of the crashes that drivers swerved to avoid animals.
As for the roadside memorial to Fischer, it is obscured by grass as drivers approach it and is visible only when drivers are alongside it.
Transportation officials do not allow memorials to stay along the road if they are considered a distraction.
Also, there was no memorial along the road following the first of the crashes.
As for a slight dip in the roadway, Casebolt said he has never noticed such a dip driving his Crown Victoria police cruiser on the highway, and that is something that Transportation would investigate.
“But, an 800-pound semi and a Crown Vic are not the same,” Casebolt said.
Officials investigating
State Patrol and Transportation officials are taking a closer look at the stretch of roadway, considering inexpensive ways to prevent another crash there.
“People shouldn’t think we’re brushing it off,” Casebolt said.
“Government is committed to making it right.”
Transportation is considering extending the guardrail that protects the entrance to Sequim Bay State Park, Bennett said.
All three crashes occurred within 100 feet of the beginning of the guardrail.
The transportation department and State Patrol are also considering a rumble strip along the shoulder or raised bumps.
On high-crash list
The transportation department evaluated the roadway when the Highway 101 Safety Corridor project was under way, and plans to take another look at the specific stretch in front of the state park, Bennett said.
The area of the highway approaching Sequim from the east was placed on a list, which Transportation compiles every other year, of more than 100 one-mile stretches of highway statewide that are considered “high accident corridors.”
One-mile stretches of state highways with unusually high collision rates are surveyed by the department and examined for quick and inexpensive fixes, Bennett said.
Bennett said transportation officials have not started reviewing the stretches on this biennium’s list, but the Sequim Bay State park crashes have grabbed agency managers’ attention.
“It’s just very unusual,” Bennett said.
“We have to address it in some way.”
________
Reporter Randy Trick can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at randy.trick@peninsuladailynews.com.
