Highway 95 Letters To The Editor

U.S. HIGHWAY 95

Reduce speed limit on dangerous stretch

I had an accident on Highway 95 in December 1998. I had been working in St. Maries, where it had been raining all day. On the way home, about 3:30 p.m., I got to Plummer and there was snow on the ground. I slowed down to about 45 mph. As I came to the curve just south of the smoke shop, my van just slipped sideways into opposing traffic. Two cars just barely squeezed past me and then I was looking at another van head on. As I braced for what I thought would be my last accident and closed my eyes, the other vehicle managed to swerve right and we only hit on the left front corners and I ended up back across the highway in the ditch and thankful for being alive.

That highway is so narrow with such sharp curves that it is terribly dangerous in the best of conditions. The speed limit should be decreased to 55 and patrolled and enforced better. I know they haven’t been at fault lately, but the big rigs traveling that narrow a road at those speeds is inherently dangerous. I sweat all the time as I pass them in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, most of the legislative votes are in the southern part of the state and frankly they just don’t care too much about us up here. By the way, one of the latest victims, David Rideout, was a client of my son’s.

Joe Robinson Coeur d’Alene

Accident took longtime best friend

My best friend for more than 20 years was Linda Diane Lindberg. She was killed on Highway 95 last Nov. 3. She was one of four people who died in the accident. One of them was pregnant, and another was a 10-month-old boy.

Not only was she my best friend - closer than sisters - I took care of her in 1978 when she broke both her arms. I have pictures of her in casts from armpit to fingertip. We even rigged a coat hanger up so she could smoke her cigarettes.

We both have 19-year-old daughters. We had a race to see who could get pregnant first. She started four months before I did, but my daughter is five weeks older than hers.

Linda and her husband, Dave, had been together for almost 18 years. They were best friends and truly a happily married couple. Why doesn’t something like this happen to unhappy people?

Linda saw the good in all. She never talked bad about anyone.

If it were the governor’s wife or a senator’s wife who was killed, would they do something about that highway then? This accident took my best friend. She was her husband’s best friend and she was a best friend to her children. All because Highway 95 has a “Deadman’s Curve.” Vivian Plank Post Falls

Drivers should practice caution

I drove school buses for the Coeur d’Alene School District over the “goat trail” (from Coeur d’Alene to southern Idaho) for 14 years during the 1980s and early 1990s and saw tremendous improvements to the highway during that period.

That improvement schedule should be continued until the whole thing is as safe as the better parts are now. Meanwhile, all the people need to drive soberly and safely, according to conditions, i.e., slow down and consider it a rest break through the areas that are narrow and have more curves, and during times of poor visibility or slick surface. These accidents would be reduced a lot if the public would practice defensive driving techniques. Perhaps better training is needed. Jack Hall Post Falls

Landowners know dangers of corner

In January 1977, my wife drove our son to Tribal School in DeSmet. On her way back, one mile north of Tensed, a tractor-trailer rig was across the center line as she entered the curve. She collided with the tractor head-on, spinning, and hitting the trailer, as the semi ripped the driver’s side of her vehicle off like a giant can opener. Her face was crushed, left lung collapsed, right lung partially collapsed, left ankle crushed, left thigh bone broken in two places.

The doctor finally came out and said, “Your wife is extremely critical, and perhaps you should call in the family,” because he didn’t expect her to survive the night. To everyone’s surprise, she is still with us. She suffers extreme pain that gets worse as years go by.

At Highway 95 and Elder Road, there were two fatalities in 1999. In 1995 or 1996, a young man rolled his vehicle late in the evening, and died during the helicopter ride to the hospital.

In the 20 years our family has owned the corner of Highway 95 and Elder Road, there have been literally hundreds of accidents, many injuries, and thousands of close calls. Everyone I know, knows someone who has been killed on Highway 95. How many more must die? Look at the fabulous freeways in southern Idaho. We in North Idaho are human beings, too. Paul Matheson Worley

Drive suitable for prisoner torture

I don’t have any one horror story on Highway 95. That nightmare is an ongoing, every-trip sort of thing; cars passing in no-passing zones (usually blind curves), trucks now so long and wide even my steel-framed Jeep Wagoneer gets blown sideways as they pass, roads so narrow (this is after they widened many stretches) you have only inches of error room, no shoulders to pull off on, no signs indicating the passing lanes are coming up (i.e., wait and don’t pass on the blind curve), patches on patches such that you constantly bump, pull, veer, jump, you-name-your-verb in the constant struggle to stay in the tiny lane. And let’s not even talk about winter driving when you can’t see the lane lines for the sand, snow and ice.

I have been driving from Moscow to Spokane via Highway 95 and Rockford for nearly 22 years. It’s not getting better; it’s getting worse. We don’t need to spend more money on prisons in Idaho; just sentence criminals to drive Highway 95 on a daily basis; they’ll beg for mercy. Jo Williams Princeton, Idaho

Driver error cause of most wrecks

I am a sophomore at North Idaho College and because of where I live I do not travel frequently on Highway 95. Instead, I follow Ramsey Road to Northwest Boulevard, and I have found that these roads, especially Northwest Boulevard, are very dangerous.

One recent morning, a friend of mine was rear-ended while stopped at a red light on Northwest Boulevard. Every day I contend with drivers who tailgate, speed, drive below the speed limit, cut me off, refuse to let me change lanes, and ignore their turn signals. When I leave the house for school every morning, I try to prepare myself for dealing with discourteous, irresponsible drivers.

Although I feel safer driving on Highway 95 than on Northwest Boulevard, I am still not entirely comfortable driving on it. It is important to remember that the road is not at fault for an automobile accident; driver error, lack of attention, and discourtesy cause most accidents. But it is not unreasonable to demand a road that is well-maintained and as safe as possible. Erica A. Orto Coeur d’Alene

Improvement efforts a lost cause

Any effort on our part to improve Highway 95 is a lost cause! We can expect more accidents and death on it for several years to come.

If any improvement on Highway 95 was to take place, then that would be to the benefit of the University of Idaho and that wouldn’t be good. The people from down south would like to see the UI become smaller than Spokane Community College.

Only when that happens will there be any major highway north and south in Idaho.

So what we need to do is get the state of Washington to improve the road to Pullman, make a good four-laner out of it and close Highway 95 down. Then maybe the deaths and accidents will drop on “Blood Alley.” Terry Storjohann Mullan