PORT ANGELES — Kim Bedinger has accepted the fate of a flower-filled memorial at Morse Creek on U.S. Highway 101 where her 19-year-old daughter, Brooke, died in a motorcycle wreck almost a year ago.
John Wynands, state Department of Transportation (DOT) Olympic Region administrator, said the marker must be removed this summer in accordance with DOT policy on unauthorized roadside objects.
“I knew that it was coming,” Bedinger said Friday.
Memorials can be replaced by a standard commemorative sign paid for by families whose loved one is being remembered, Wynands said.
The DOT gets about three to five calls a month from motorists saying the memorial is a distraction at a sharply curved portion at the bottom of the hilly roadway where other fatalities have occurred, Wynands said.
“Anything we can do to reduce driver distraction,” he said. “Driver distraction goes down, safety goes up. That is our focus.”
Bedinger, a Sequim resident, said she did not want the memorial marker that’s been in place since summer 2018 to hinder the concentration of drivers traveling along the wreck-prone curve east of Port Angeles, negating its purpose.
“I don’t want it to be a distraction where it causes more accidents,” she said.
Wynands said it is likely that safety improvements on the curve at Morse Creek where Bedinger died June 21, 2018 — and which the Bedinger family and their supporters lobbied state lawmakers to fund — will be constructed beginning in summer 2021.
Wynands said the $5 million project is in the top 10 safety projects statewide.
The project would entail building a curb-high, boulevard median-barrier between the eastbound and westbound lanes to buffer against serious wrecks.
DOT officials, including regional administrators, are meeting in the coming weeks to review the statewide list, DOT spokeswoman Linda Robson said Friday in an email.
Surveying for the project will begin this summer, Wynands said.
Wynands said funding is available in DOT’s safety program.
“The only question is, is it programmed for that summer,” he said.
State lawmakers appropriated $1 million for design, pre-permitting and permitting for the project during the recently c0ncluded legislative session.
But $4 million more is needed for construction that’s available in the agency’s safety program.
Wynands said as a top-10 safety project statewide, the project’s chances for funding are high.
“Our plan is to design it and be ready to build it in summer 2021,” he said.
Wynands said the commemorative signs that replace roadside memorials say “please drive safely” and “in memory of” with Bedinger’s name and a date, and cost between $500 and $700.
“Generally speaking, the private party pays for the sign, so the family will pay for the sign itself,” Wynands said.
“We will be doing the work, and we can install it.
“The exact location is to be determined.”
He said highway memorials to loved ones are allowed to remain for about a year before they are removed.
Bedinger and her family are planning to adopt the section of highway where Brook died, she said.
They hope to spend time there six or eight times a year, picking up roadside refuse and keeping it clean, she said.
About 250 crashes occurred from 2007-2019 on the sweeping, uphill-downhill curve between East Kolonels Way and Scenic View Drive, which is the entrance to a rest stop. Those crashes included four vehicular fatalities and seven motorcycle wrecks.
The improvement project is the top safety project of its kind in the Olympic Region, which includes seven counties and 1.7 million residents.
The Bedinger family is sponsoring a Barriers for Brooke memorial concert June 1 at the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula to raise money for scholarships.
The concert at the Sequim facility at 400 W. Fir St., will feature several musicians as well as a performance by the Sequim High School Choir. Bedinger was a Sequim High School graduate.
Concert tickets are $15 for ages 18 and older and $10 for ages 6-17. Children ages 5 and under will be admitted free of charge.
A car show and access to vendors including food concessions are free beginning at 3 p.m. before the concert, which will start at 5 p.m.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
