Highway 95 deaths down

As North Idaho’s population boomed in recent years, a surprising trend has emerged on its roads: They appear to be safer.

On U.S. Highway 95, which has long been considered one of the most dangerous roads in the state, traffic fatalities dropped by half last year. Since 1999, when a record 35 people died on the highway, the number of fatalities has steadily fallen and totaled just 11 deaths last year.

Five years after a massive construction project began on the highway, state experts are crediting something less visible: Driver education.

They point out that the decrease in fatalities has been regionwide, not just on Highway 95. In Idaho’s five northern counties, the number of traffic deaths dropped from 31 in 2005, to 16 last year.

“When you look at numbers like this, you’re going to have to acknowledge the drivers out there,” said Scott Stokes, the Idaho Transportation Department’s District 1 engineer. “The most important thing in having a safe highway is driver behavior.”

Idaho officials approached the problem on two fronts – by building wider, safer roads and by educating drivers on how to protect themselves.

On Saturday afternoon, about 40 people huddled in a basement room to view sobering videos and slides as part of a voluntary driver education program offered by the Idaho State Police. The temporary education programs – which inform drivers how to stay safe on winter roads – have proven so popular that police have extended them through the winter.

“People understand that you can’t build highways fast enough to match the growth we’re having, and they are realizing that it comes down to personal responsibility,” said ISP Capt. Wayne Longo, who led the course.

Like many recent Idaho transplants, 49-year-old Valerie Zakareckis moved north from warmer climes.

“I came from Santa Cruz, Calif., where we don’t have ice and snow,” Zakareckis said. “I’m terrified.”

Norman O’Daniel, 67, a longtime resident, has been unnerved by the high speed of some drivers. On Saturday, he sought information on how to protect himself from aggressive drivers.

“When I was a kid we didn’t have many accidents because cars didn’t go over 40 miles an hour,” O’Daniel said.

But as the region changed, so did its roads.

The most substantive changes began after 1999 – the deadliest year on Highway 95.

The road, which stretches from Oregon to the Canadian border, claimed more than 200 people in the 1990s. Its narrow, winding lanes through the Idaho countryside led some to call it the “Goat’s Trail” and “Dead Man’s Highway.”

But after years of failed appropriations in the Legislature, state officials finally secured funding in 2000. Since then, they have spent more than $70 million to transform much of the two-lane road into a four-lane channel divided by a grassy median. Signs alerting drivers of hazards were added, as were traffic reflectors.

On the road from Coeur d’Alene to Sandpoint, engineers added rumble strips to alert drivers when they cross the center line, and created long stretches of four-lane travel.

“Road improvements relieve a lot of the impatience people have,” Longo said. “Traffic flow allows everything to go more smoothly.”

At the same time, the Idaho State Police began a crackdown on aggressive drivers, targeting people who follow too closely, fail to yield to others, or change lanes unsafely.

More and more people have been reporting aggressive drivers and have been willing to file complaints, according to ISP data.

“I think people are getting fed up with aggressive driving,” Longo said.

In the midst of the construction and education projects, more and more cars zoomed along North Idaho’s network of state roads and federal highways. On some roads, traffic volume doubled or even tripled from 1990 to 2005, according to ITD data.

On Interstate 90’s route through Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, more than 40,000 vehicles shuttled past on an average day in 2005 – about 17 percent more than in 2000. On smaller roads such as state Highway 41, which connects Rathdrum to Post Falls, average daily traffic increased from 3,600 to 13,000.

State officials say drivers deserve credit for decreasing fatal accidents even as traffic burgeoned.

“I’m hoping that we are starting to see a change in our culture,” said Stokes, the transportation department’s regional engineer. “We need to do what we can to encourage that behavior.”