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Cross Kitsap Traffic Safety Two Year Project Results

Bremerton, WA - After nearly two and a half years, the Cross Kitsap Traffic Safety Corridor Project is winding down. Initiated in April 2003, the safety project targeted three stretches of highway in Kitsap County where fatal and disabling crashes occurred 2-3 times more often compared to similar highways in the region: SR 3, SR 304(Burwell Street) and SR 310(Kitsap Way).

“This project demonstrates how focusing resources can improve safety on our roadways,” says Monica Petersen Smith Corridor Safety Program Manager for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. “With carefully chosen, low cost, high impact engineering improvements, law enforcement emphasis patrols targeting high risk behavior and a multi prong public education and outreach program we have succeed in reducing the incident of not only collisions but serious injury and death on three roadways in Kitsap County.”

With two year’s project data now available overall crashes are down on the Cross Kitsap Traffic Safety Corridor by 2% with fatal and disabling collisions down by 13% and alcohol related fatal and disabling collisions down by 50%. The overall number of injuries in collisions is down by 6%.

Though the leading cause of collisions in the Cross Kitsap Traffic Safety Corridor remains failure to yield, the overall incident of failure to yield collisions is down by 11% from the pre-project three year period. The other top three contributing causes also show marked reductions: down 23% for following too close; and down 12% for exceeding safe speed.

The project team is pleased to see that following too close, the subject of many public awareness outreach efforts, shows a significant reduction. Furthermore, not one fatal and disabling crash attributed to following too close occurred during the two year project period

The trend towards an increasing number of collisions attributable to inattention noted in the interim project results continues; up 50% from the three years prior to the project. The importance of paying attention to your driving was the focus of a summer long public awareness campaign that featured bus and bill board advertising, in theater video advertising, special coffee sleeves and safety talks. The project team will access the impact of the pay attention campaign when collision data from this summer is available.

Building on the intermediate driver’s license law, which has lead to reductions in teen driver collisions in Washington and other states, the project team targeted safe driving outreach to teen drivers including a video focusing on the risks of aggressive driving. The number of drivers under the age of 21 involved in collisions is now down 28% on the corridor.

“This has been a rewarding project and a benefit to Kitsap County,” said John R. Batiste, Chief of the Washington State Patrol. “I am proud that the WSP was a part of this important project. I thank all of our partners in making this happen, especially to the motoring public who have heard the messages and are paying closer attention to their driving.”