Flashing red lights that dot the outer edge of a pair of “Wrong-Way” signs flanking the state Highway 14 offramp at C street were turned on Monday to help steer drivers clear of what has too often been used in recent years as an onramp — with disastrous consequences.
Last year, in January, a wrong-way driver traveling east in the westbound lanes of Highway 14 was killed in a wreck that seriously injured a Camas woman. In July, a wrong-way driver caused serious injuries to at least two people in a similar crash.
After a complete analysis that included engineering studies of the offramp, the Washington Department of Transportation settled on the wrong-way lights as a possible solution.
State Highway 14 spills onto C Street at the edge of Vancouver’s downtown core. At the intersection of Seventh and C streets, the thoroughfare transforms to allow travel in both directions.
For a long time, C Street was simply one-way northbound. One possible explanation for the crashes is that transforming the road to allow two-way travel north of Seventh Street caused confusion.
Engineering studies initiated after the January crash found signage in the area met state and federal standards and should have provided drivers enough warning to avoid entering Highway 14 headed eastbound.
The July crash, however, suggested something was still amiss.
The answer, traffic officials hope, comes in the form of the small, flashing red lights that will make the wrong-way signs all the more difficult to ignore.
“We also did some brush and tree-trimming to clear out the area and make everything more visible,” said Abbi Russell of the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The lights and brush-clearing were financed using money designated for low-cost improvements. The enhancements cost about $18,000.
The lights are solar-powered and visible only to vehicles traveling past them in the wrong direction. The signs are part of a pilot project the state’s transportation department is testing in the Southwest Region.
“We’re going to gather the data over the next couple years to see if this is an effective solution,” Russell said.
Similar wrong-way lights are used at the Interstate 205 off-ramp at Northeast 112th Avenue.
Russell said the lights are also being used, temporarily, to help minimize confusion near a construction zone in Kelso.
Bob Albrecht: 360-735-4522 or bob.albrecht@columbian.com.
