Someone is going to die

Someone is going to die at the intersection of Barclay Drive and Highway 20.

What has happened there already is bad enough. there have been four major accidents, three in two years, with more than a dozen people injured, several seriously or critically. People from Sisters, our friends and neighbors, have suffered permanent, life-changing injuries.

We cannot wait two, three, four more years — or more — for the City of Sisters and the Oregon Department of Transportation to do something to improve safety at this intersection. We’re told that a plan must be completed, that funding must be found.
That kind of bureaucratic response tastes like ashes to the families and friends of the injured. Imagine telling that to the next person who is hurt there, or to a family mourning a loved one killed there.

We have known there was going to be a signal at that intersection for a decade, before the road was even completed. If there are other, better options, great. Let’s hear them.

ODOT wasted no time, effort or money putting in a passing lane on Highway 20, allegedly for safety reasons, even though no accident has been recorded on that section of highway.

The agency can certainly fast-track a project where lives are actually at stake.

Every time there is an accident at that intersection, there is an outcry for action. Then it dies down — until the next pileup sends someone to the hospital.

It is time to act. Write to Mayor Brad Boyd at bboyd@ci.sisters.or.us and to ODOT planner Jim Bryant at James.R.BRYANT@odot.state.or.us. Be respectful and courteous; these men have jobs to do and many priorities to balance and anger won’t help.

But let them know how important it is that action be taken NOW, before someone dies and the community of Sisters is left to ask why.

Jim Cornelius, Editor