Highway 97 has claimed its first life of 2009 – 16-year-old Mountain View High School cheerleader Shalae Rae Mortenson.
According to a story on the front page of this morning’s Bulletin, Mortenson was killed “when her northbound pickup truck spun across the center line of U.S. Highway 97 south of Redmond near Southwest Quarry Avenue and into the path of a truck traveling in the opposite direction.” The driver of the other truck was seriously injured.
This tragedy almost certainly would not have happened if a Jersey Wall had been in place on that section of the highway, as The Eye advocated almost exactly a month ago. At that time, Daniel and Madge York of Prineville were killed when another vehicle swerved to avoid a pickup towing a trailer and veered across the highway into their lane, hitting their car head-on.
Jersey Walls or Jersey Barriers – so named because they were first used on the New Jersey Turnpike – are three-foot-high concrete structures designed to prevent vehicles from crossing into oncoming traffic and nudge them back into their own travel lane.
The Oregon Department of Transportation already has installed a Jersey Wall on 97 south of Bend near Lava Butte, a formerly deadly stretch of highway. An ODOT spokesman told us in December that the agency wants to put walls on 97 between Bend and Redmond someday, but doesn’t have the money to do it yet.
Also, the spokesman said, ODOT anticipates resistance from local property owners who’d find it more difficult to turn into their driveways. The Eye doesn’t have a hell of a lot of sympathy for such whiners. Losing your life is a bit more inconvenient than having to drive down the highway a little way to make a U-turn.
If you agree that putting a Jersey Wall on 97 should be an urgent priority for ODOT, you can phone ODOT’s Citizen Representative at 888-275-6368 or send a comment here.
In the meantime, The Eye is going to keep track of how many people get killed in head-ons on that stretch of 97 through next November. Right now we’re at three and counting.
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2009.
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sahlae was sooo fun and happy and beautfull why would this happen to her?
I think that Hwy 97 is a treacherous road anytime of the year. There is nothing to stop oncoming traffic from crossing the median an hit an oncoming car. This has happened numerous times since I have lived in C.O. I am all for some type of barrier put in place. Human life is much more important than whether or not folks have to drive a little further to get to a turn off point. To the family of this young girl…my thoughts and prayers are with you all. KH Redmond, OR
ODOT and the State police have the money for other projects all over the state including a multi million dollar state cop building in BEND. Dont tell me that they cant purchase concrete dividers for this stretch of road. Why is it or state fails us on a day to day basis? Remember when the state was busting movers last summer? How much did they spend on that? Do you see all the brand new trucks ODOT HAS? ODOT workers are over paid for the most part and their time is a unproductive waste of our tax money. Remember the joke when you see 5 people watching one person work ( hey you look a odot worker!) We are over taxed and under protected on our roadways. By the way protection doesnt consist of our tax collector state cops driving around passing out tickets to raise money for the states payroll fund. I have an idea! Lets get some of our unemployed construction workers who work with concrete make all the precast dividers between Bend and Redmond and the state can give us back some of our money through the wages and material used her in central Oregon. We could set up a production plant at a local concrete yard its easy stuff. Create jobs and save lives! What a concept! As we move closer to a controlled Police state just remember they dont believe your life is worth their power and money. Happy New Year!
I support construction of the protective barriers on Hwy 97 from Bend to Redmond. Each time my wife or daughter drive on it I worry about their safety. There are too many preventable accidents.
“Each time my wife or daughter drive on it I worry about their safety”
My wife commutes to and from Redmond almost every day and it scares the hell out of me. It’s all very well to preach and practice safe driving (and she’s a very safe driver), but what can you do about the other assholes out there?