Kittitas / Vantage Highways Traffic Safety Project

Description:

• The Kittitas County Corridor consists of 16.82 miles of County Routes.  The Vantage Highway portion extends from the City of Ellensburg to Parke Creek Road, a distance of 10.65 miles.  The Kittitas Highway portion extends from Ellensburg to the City of Kittitas, a distance of 6.17 miles. 

• The project kicked off on September 30, 2004.

• The traffic load ranges from 700 to 6,000 vehicles per day on the Vantage Highway section and from 3300 to 4300 vehicles per day on the Kittitas Highway portion. 

• The traffic is comprised of local, agricultural, commuter and recreational traffic. 

• Available data indicates that 125 crashes occurred during the six-year period January, 1997 – December, 2002.  Four percent (4%) of those crashes involved fatalities or disabling injuries. 

• The overwhelming majority of crashes (79%) occur during clear weather and during daylight hours (59%). 

• December and January have the highest number of crashes. 

• Tuesdays and Fridays have the highest numbers of crashes, and Sundays and Mondays have the lowest, but the peak hours for crashes fall between Noon and 8:00 PM. 

• There are a disproportionate number of sixteen-year-old drivers involved in crashes (nearly twice as many as any other age). 

Significant Characteristics of Crashes:

• Inattention, Exceeding Safe Speed, Fail to Yield, Improper Passing and Disregarding a Stop Sign are the leading causes of all collisioins.

• Inattention is the cause of crashes at a rate 304% higher than similar highways in the region. 

• Fail to Yield is the cause of crashes 14% more often than for similar highways in the state, but 50% more often than for similar roadways in the area. 

• Improper Passing is the causee of crashes at a rate 91% higher than for similar roadways in the area.

• Disregarding a Stop Sign is a cause 70% more often than for other roads in the area. 

• Angle Crashes, Driveway-Related and Sideswipe Collisions (Same Direction) and Sideswipe (Opposite Direction)are the leading types of crashes. 

• Driveway-Related and both types of sideswipe collisions occur at rates significantly (+ 70% to + 286%) higher than similar highways in the region.   

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