The Oregon Senate will vote Monday on a bill that would give the Department of Transportation six years to finish building median barriers along 100 miles of unprotected highway prone to deadly crossover crashes.
Senate Bill 921, or the "Fritz-Fairchild Act," is a response to the Sept. 24 deaths of Steve Fritz and Cary Fairchild along a hazardous, unbarricaded stretch of Interstate 5 north of Salem.
An examination by The Oregonian/OregonLive showed the freeway north of Salem went unprotected for years because of changing political priorities, lack of money, the Oregon Department of Transportation's decentralized decision-making and a traffic safety formula that doesn't look at crash potential the way some other states do.
Shortly after the story was published, and with urging from Gov. John Kitzhaber, ODOT Director Matthew Garrett on Oct. 24 signed an emergency declaration to dedicate emergency funding to add miles of cable guard along unprotected sections of I-5.
ODOT also updated its policy to install barriers where open medians are 100 feet or less between opposing lanes of traffic across the state. Before the deadly high-profile crash and investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive, ODOT policy only concentrated on unprotected medians that were 60 feet or less.
The changes "mean ODOT will target another 100 miles of interstate medians to be closed at a cost of approximately $20 million," wrote Paul Mather, administrator of ODOT's Highway Division, in a letter to the Senate Committee on Business and Transportation. "ODOT's policy extends beyond interstate highways, to other divided highways (US 26, OR 217, OR 22, OR 126, US 97) with interstate type characteristics."
However, the bill, sponsored by Republican Bill Hansell and Democrat Peter Courtney, puts ODOT on the clock to prioritize the barriers and get them built over the next six years.
The bill directs ODOT "to make efforts" before Dec. 31, 2021 to complete installation of barriers when the distance between opposing lanes of traffic is 100 feet or less, except when the segments are designated for emergency access or if the median barriers may create a safety hazard.
Fairchild and Fritz, the husband of Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, both worked at the Oregon State Hospital. On the morning of Sept. 24, the two were carpooling to work in suddenly torrential rains when a black pickup vaulted the earthen median berm, crashing head-on into Fritz's zebra-striped Nissan Sentra.
A long-delayed I-5 cable barrier -- a cheaper but highly effective alternative to concrete walls -- on that stretch of highway might have saved Fritz and Fairchild.
The stretch of unprotected median between Keizer's Chemawa Road Northeast and Salem's Santiam Highway Southeast had seen 22 crossover crashes since 2005, according to ODOT records.
The narrow 30-foot median contains only a low earthen berm that was erected in 1994. As The Oregonian examination showed, the five-foot-high mound was left there despite concerns that berms don't improve safety and can even make high-speed crossovers worse by acting as "launch pads."
The Fritz-Fairchild Act was on the city of Portland list of legislative priorities for 2015.
In a phone interview, Amanda Fritz said the bill demonstrates, among other things, that Portland -- "often seen as an 800-pound gorilla" -- cares about the welfare of drivers beyond the I-5 corridor and wants to help where it can.
Fritz said she appreciates that ODOT is nearly done replacing the grassy berm where her husband was killed with a cable barrier. "But there are families in central and eastern Oregon who also need to be protected," she said.
-- Joseph Rose
503-221-8029
jrose@oregonian.com
@josephjrose