A deadly year on U.S. Highway 97

Central Oregon is following a national trend of higher fatalities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because more people have stayed home during the pandemic, transportation officials suspect more people are speeding on the open roads and driving impaired.

Kacey Davey, an ODOT spokesperson for the Central Oregon region, said the causes of last year’s crashes are still being investigated but it appears a majority are related to speed and intoxication.

“It’s hard to say yet why the fatalities increased on this stretch of highway,” Davey said. “There are some national reports that are showing a trend toward increased speed and intoxication as factors.”

Oregon State Police Sgt. Caleb Ratliff, who has worked in the Bend area since 2012, said the overwhelming factor in fatal crashes, especially on Highway 97, has been speed. People are driving over the speed limit and driving too fast in potentially hazardous conditions, such as in snow and ice, Ratliff said.

Drivers are not taking into account road conditions, other drivers and the volume of traffic, and those tendencies increased during the pandemic, Ratliff said.

“As COVID hit, we saw a very sharp decrease in traffic on the highway, but we also saw an increase in the speeds on the highway,” Ratliff said. “We see faster drivers more commonly now.”

About one-third of fatal crashes on state highways involve a criminal element such as drunken driving, Ratliff said. OSP is currently investigating three criminal fatal crashes in Central Oregon.

In addition to driving under the influence, OSP troopers have seen more aggressive driving during the pandemic that has led to fatal crashes.

“People are frustrated and that plays out,” Ratliff said. “It’s easy to tell when someone is frustrated because that comes out in their driving.”

The majority of the fatal crashes along Highway 97 last year were between Redmond and Madras and south of La Pine, areas where traffic has increased steadily in recent years.

In the nearly 10 years Ratliff has worked in the Bend area, travel between Bend and Redmond has matched interstate traffic in Springfield and La Grande, where Ratliff previously worked.

“Even though it is a smaller city, the traffic volumes that we get at times can be comparable to some of those larger areas I’ve worked as well,” Ratliff said.

OSP troopers are directed to enforce the “Fatal 5” factors in fatal crashes: speed, occupant safety (seatbelt use), lane safety, impaired driving and distracted driving.

“As patrol troopers, that’s what we really try to focus our priorities on,” Ratliff said.

In an attempt to prevent fatal crashes, ODOT has completed several safety improvement projects through the Highway 97 corridor and has a few more planned in the coming years.

Mark Barrett, ODOT traffic manager for the region, said recent projects include installing rumble strips and warning signs in specific areas. Future projects will install barriers between Bend and Redmond and south of Sunriver to help prevent head-on crashes.

“Those are all proven highway safety countermeasures,” Barrett said. “They are successful at reducing crashes.”

ODOT also focuses on education campaigns to caution drivers.

Vanessa Robinson, ODOT traffic safety coordinator, creates programs to educate the public about safe driving practices to avoid serious crashes. Robinson oversees statewide campaigns that include social media posts and commercials for TV and radio.

At a local level, Robinson partners with organizations to share safe driving messages to each community in the state.

“We keep having serious and fatal crashes,” Robinson said. ”I want to get into as many communities as possible.”

Robinson has seen how the educational programs have made a difference. For example, certain programs have gained national attention for reducing crashes involving teenage drivers and motorcyclists.

“People’s risk taking behaviors don’t just go away on their own,” Robinson said. “But that doesn’t mean they aren’t open to messaging that could change their mind about a specific behavior.”

ODOT relies on the engineering projects and educational campaigns to prevent fatal crashes, but ultimately most crashes are due to drivers’ behaviors, Davey said.

That is a fact state troopers and transportation officials can’t change.

“There still is this element of people making their own decisions,” Davey said. “We really are just trying to combat those possible poor decisions with these things as much as we can.”