State: Parks Highway most dangerous

February 10, 2006

KRISTEN SEINE\For the Frontiersman

The area west of Wasilla along the Parks Highway is fast becoming one of the most popular places to live. But it has also earned an unfortunate distinction. Based on statistics, it is becoming the most dangerous place to drive.

Greg Wilkinson, of the Alaska State Troopers, expanded last week on comments made by state Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bill Tandeske during the signing of seat-belt legislation. Tandeske surprised many when he said it is not the notorious Seward Highway that is the most dangerous in Alaska, as previously thought, but sections of the Parks Highway just outside Wasilla city limits.

&#8220That's based on numbers that were looked at over a period of years,” Wilkinson said, &#8220in what we call beat codes, or trooper patrol areas.”

Between 2001 and 2005, he said, there were 35 fatal accidents on and around the Parks Highway in the area patrolled by the troopers, but he noted that also includes places like Fairview Loop, Bogard Road and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Ten of those 35 fatalities, for example, occurred along Knik-Goose Bay Road out to Point MacKenzie Road.

Nevertheless, he said, nearly half of the fatal accidents occurred in Meadow Lakes and Big Lake, with eight of those on the Parks Highway from Mile 45 to 51, and three more on Pittman Road. Two more occurred on Big Lake Road. In contrast, the Seward Highway &#8220beat code” only reported a total of 14 fatalities.

The area is also the worst in the state for injury accidents, Wilkinson said. Statistics for the same period show that there were 697 injury accidents within the trooper patrol area west and south of Wasilla.

&#8220The next place on the list didn't even come close. It was Ester, outside of Fairbanks, with 365,” he said.

There has been a decrease in the number of fatal accidents per year over the last three years, which is about when the troopers began implementing their DUI enforcement plan.

&#8220We hope, and we would of course like to think, that there is a correlation,” he said. &#8220The point is this: The area north of Wasilla is still a problem area.”

He said troopers hope the addition of &#8220Mat-Su West,” as troopers are calling the new post going up at the intersection of Pittman and Parks this summer, will have the effect of increasing &#8220voluntary compliance” with speed limits and decreasing the number of DUIs.

Some locals aren't willing to wait that long.

Donnie Darilek owns U-Pick Donuts, which sits at the corner of Parks and Pittman. She's seen as many as five accidents in a 10-day period, four in one week recently, from her location.

A week ago, a Willow woman was killed near that intersection when she lost control while passing another vehicle and spun into oncoming traffic. &#8220It's just gotten crazy,” Darilek said.

Darilek wants the speed limit through Meadow Lakes to be lowered. She planned to speak Wednesday before the Meadow Lakes Community Council on the matter.

Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, has been receiving calls about the road, which some have taken to calling &#8220Dead Man's Curve.”

&#8220It is just a very, very dangerous stretch of road,” Kohring said. &#8220And I think lowering the speed limit is a good potential solution to the problem.”

Kohring sent a letter last fall to Gordon Keith, regional director of the state Department of Transportation, expressing concern about traffic conditions in the rapidly growing area. After hearing about last week's fatal accident, he said he called the department to see where things stood. He was told that DOT is doing a feasibility study and traffic analysis to determine whether lowering the speed limit would benefit the situation.

&#8220I think it would help,” Kohring said. &#8220I'm not the expert on this, but I would think that lowering the speed limit to the same as it is in Wasilla would be beneficial.”

Troopers agree.

&#8220Remember, the slower you are driving, the lesser the inertia,” Wilkinson said. &#8220Therefore, you lower the speed limit, and you lessen the damage.”

Kohring said lowering the speed limit wouldn't solve the long-term problem of traffic on the often overcrowded Parks Highway.

&#8220The short-term solution, I think, is to lower the speed limit,” he said. &#8220But the long-term solution is to widen that road. That's already on the [priorities] list, but not soon enough.”

The draft Statewide Transportation Improvements Program for 2006-2008 includes plans to widen the Parks to a four-lane highway starting at Mile 44, at Lucus Road, to the Big Lake cutoff at Mile 52.3. Funding for design is anticipated in the draft plan for fiscal year 2007 and for rights of way in 2009. However, the bulk of funding is not even anticipated until after 2009.

&#8220It's a few years out,” Kohring said. &#8220And that's just not acceptable. My goal is to expedite that.”