SAFETY ON THE 6 – COMMUNITY CALLS FOR SAFETY – HIGHWAY 6 PROJECT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED; Draft Summary of Concerns, Issues

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By Laura Swanson

Another sign-waving rally is planned for Sunday August 8th from 12:30 to 3:30 pm at the pullout on the west end of the Wilson River Canyon to remind drivers to slow down, use caution, drive kind, enjoy the drive and arrive alive. A Facebook group has been formed “Safety on the 6” and outreach has already begun to have an impact.  Reader boards – VMS (variable message signs) are being deployed and messaging developed about driver safety and the recent accidents on OR-6 – hopefully going up before the weekend. Here is a request for volunteers from community organizer Jesse Borough and from volunteer Laura Sinclair a draft summary list of ideas that has been compiled from comments on various social media pages.

On the Tillamook County Community Meeting this morning, August 3rd, nearly every speaker mentioned work being done to address the safety concerns on Hwy. 6.  Over 30 people have contacted “Ask ODOT” with their concerns about the safety on the Wilson River Highway – See the following story for more about how ODOT is actively addressing and being responsive to the community’s concerns.  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

Here is the GoFundMe for the family that was in the accident last weekend both survivors have been upgraded to serious, but stable condition and face surgeries and long recovery times. https://www.gofundme.com/f/ku43t-funeral-and-medical-bills?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

From Jesse Borough:

I’m getting an over flow of great feed back and people wanting to help in my inbox which is fantastic.
What I am reaching out for in this post is some specific positions to support the efforts of the “Safety on the 6” community group, and if you are willing to serve in these areas that would be great.

First – I would like to discuss STRATEGY.
The community has provided their ideas on what we would like to change on highway 6, SEE DRAFT BELOW. Referring to strategy is the details of how we will present our case to the commissioners, the state representatives. Now please hear my heart, I want to collaborate and work together with these officials and that is how we are going to get anything done.

However, I don’t believe we need to share every detail of how we are going to strategize our case when we show up at the committee meeting. I feel we will have a better case if we don’t show all of our cards. Just my opinion, I am no politician, I am no expert by any means but that just seems like common sense when you’re taking on a big project like this to the state.

We will have objectives, I want to be able to strategize these off the mainstream media. In a sense I want our community to have an impact and hit hard.

Once I get these teams together if you have some insight on strategy, give me a couple weeks to get these teams together and private message me your thoughts.

Again I am open for positive constructive criticism/ ideas.

With that being said here are some of the positions we need help with:

  • RESEARCH TEAM
  • VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR- this person will need to be able to coordinate volunteers in many different areas. Great Communication skills, organized.
  • VOLUNTEERS- for odds and ends. Sign holding, signature collector who knows what else as we develop.

If you are interested in serving in any of these areas, please message me just the position. RESEARCHER or VOLUNTEER. So I can easily see and separate in my inbox.

My goal is to get people in these areas and get them into a text thread together for the team they are in. They can communicate, collaborate, ask questions and save time for someone having to reply to a many people with the same questions etc.

There are town hall meetings coming up so getting the research team together to attend will be valuable.

Thanks everyone.  -Jesse

To volunteer – text or call Jesse at 503-812-5636 or via Facebook Messenger, email to jboroughonthebeach@gmail.com

 

By Laura Sinclair McShane

Hi everyone. Like all of you I’ve been following the impassioned discussion of Safety On the Six. (Working title)

If I am reading and comprehending correctly, the salient issues are as follow:

Issues related to human behavior:

  1. Drivers crossing the center lane to attempt to pass into oncoming traffic lane. This requires one to accelerate to a very high rate of speed. Head on collisions resulting from these high rates of speed have been responsible for many fatal accidents on this stretch of road.
  2. Heavy traffic on a road not designed to support that level of traffic.
  3. Drivers using rates of speed significantly higher than the posted limit.
  4. Drivers who drive much slower than the posted limit who do not pull over to allow others to pass; resulting in angry frustrated people behind them. We believe that this frustration is a frequent cause of #1.
  5. Drivers who have been driving slowly that suddenly accelerate in the straightaways and passing lanes, thus not allowing those behind them to pass; once again resulting in angry frustrated drivers.
  6. Lack of experience driving in snowy, icy, foggy conditions. ( Okay, so that hasn’t been discussed recently, but I’m trying to think forward about 5 months)

Issues related to road conditions:

  1. Lack of consistent maintenance on the road surface.
  2. General instability of the mountain causing cracking and sinking in several areas of the road. This is exacerbated by erosion and the heavy traffic volume.
  3. Short, infrequent passing lanes, so that slower drivers have fewer opportunities to be gracious and allow others to pass.

Other:

  1. Lack of cell phone reception on a lengthy stretch of road (50 miles) resulting in delays in ambulance, paramedic, and police services for accident victims.
  2. Lack of police presence on the highway, allowing people to drive carelessly with impunity.
  3. A general sense of anger and frustration from the regular travelers of highway 6–a sense that local, county, and state officials simply do not care.

 

If there are other important issues you’d like me to add, please let me know. Email your suggestions/input to sinclairmcshane@gmail.com.

Also, on this post I am not making recommendations, just clarifying issues. As we develop a working team, we will present our list of recommendations to the “team” and community.