Deaths prompt review of U.S. 395

When two Deer Park teens were killed in a January crash on U.S. Highway 395, about five miles from where a two-car collision took the lives of five children in 2005, transportation officials began looking at whether the north-south route has become more dangerous in recent years.

But an analysis of U.S. 395’s crashes from 1999 to 2006 showed no substantial change. The deaths fluctuated between two and 11 per year.

The report also indicated that humans are the primary cause of the fatal collisions, not the roadway’s design. In the past 12 years U.S. 395 has had several improvements, including the additions of lanes and rumble strips along the road’s center.

A majority of the 34 fatal crashes during the eight-year period were caused by drivers who pulled into oncoming traffic, crossed the centerline or were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, said Al Gilson, a Washington Department of Transportation spokesman. Only one fatal crash occurred when a driver hit a deer in the roadway.