C. Falls pushes for lower U.S. 2 speeds

A 13-year-old Columbia Falls boy's brush with death last month when hit by a pickup on U.S. 2 helped refocus attention on the dangers of the stretch of highway on the west edge of town.

Monday night, the Columbia Falls City Council got back into the fray.

Council members asked City Manager Bill Shaw to write yet another formal request for the Montana Department of Transportation to cut speed limits there. Past requests for lower speeds and a traffic light at Hilltop Road have been unsuccessful.

Then, as if to highlight the urgency, yet another two-vehicle crash at the junction of Hilltop and U.S. 2 sent one person to the hospital less than an hour after the council's action.

These two are just the latest in a long string of dangerous traffic situations at the western entry to Columbia Falls.

Although the intersection and speed limits are two distinct issues, they are related.

"It's an engineering mistake, having that hill with an intersection at the top," police Chief Dave Perry said. "Coming up on that blind intersection is dangerous."

"I run to more traffic accidents at Hilltop and U.S. 2" than anywhere else in the city, fire Chief Bob Webber said. "I've been out there at least 10 times just in the two years that I've been here."

And, he said, his department used to be called only for accidents with confirmed injuries. That means even his estimate of 10 wrecks in two years probably is low.

Last year, a father who lives in the North Hilltop area protested a subdivision on Lemburg Lane just off North Hilltop, decrying the extra traffic it will bring to a hazardous intersection.

His daughter someday will get her driver's license, he told the council, and risk her life at that intersection. He told the city that if her fatality became a flash-point for a lawsuit, they may wish they had done something sooner.

He gave voice to the fears of many.

Alex Becker, 13, is back home from St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, recovering from massive injuries received that day when he stepped off the curb on his way to school.

The legal speed limit at that point, near Rustic Rails Furniture, is 55 mph. Perhaps 50 yards to the east it becomes 45 mph.

But those who drive that stretch know that, in reality, traffic nearly always travels much faster - possibly a habit from the days when the limit from the Blue Moon corner into town was 70 mph.

Monday night's council request proposed each of the speed zones from the Blue Moon eastward be reduced by 10 mph.

If granted, that would put the stretch from the Blue Moon to just west of Hilltop Road at 50 mph. From there to the cemetery west of Super 1 Foods, it would become 45 mph. From there to the BNSF railroad tracks it would change to 35 mph.

Through the rest of town, east to the area of Ohs' Body Shop, it would remain 25 mph before gradually bumping back up to highway speeds.

It would be a start to improved safety, the council argued.

The perception of U.S. 2 West as a full-speed highway clashes with its use as a residential and commercial area for Columbia Falls.

Vehicles regularly pull on and off the highway there. The few pedestrians have to sprint, even when they wait for clear lanes from both directions - vehicles traveling at the speed limit can approach unexpectedly.

The state, not the city, sets speed limits on the highway through town.

If it agrees to consider the city's request, the state first would conduct a traffic study to determine whether a change in speed limits or a traffic light is warranted.

And, Perry warned the council, that's where everything could backfire.

"In the past, the problem has been that when the DOT does a speed survey," Perry told them, "you could risk them going the other way."

It's a gamble the council is willing to take.

Perry pointed to the city's success when it made a similar request for U.S. 2 east of town last year, where homes and new subdivisions are feeding onto the highway between the Flathead River and Columbia Heights.

Perry said the Hilltop-U.S. 2 intersection is by far the most dangerous intersection in his jurisdiction.

"The key issue is, at Hilltop they've all involved injuries," the police chief said. An accident two years ago led to a fatality there, he added.

Not only does it cost in the form of injuries and fatalities, the high speeds mean "those are the high-value, high-damage accidents," he said. A street light installed there last summer improved visibility.

Next in line, for numbers and severity of accidents, is on the highway's junction with Truck Route at Mike's Conoco, where log trucks, chip trucks and other semis make wide turns and collide with other vehicles. A woman lost her life there a couple years ago, and several more have been injured.

The third most accident-prone intersection is at U.S. 2 and 12th Avenue, the Burger King corner. It's the preferred route for Scenic View and other Talbott Road residents traveling to Whitefish, and clashes in the mornings with traffic traveling to and from Ruder Elementary School at the corner of 12th and Talbott.

Some people, Perry said, think a crosswalk is needed there.

But two blocks east, at the Park Side Federal Credit Union corner on 10th Avenue, is a painted crosswalk that is not regulated by a light. Perry said the danger is that some vehicles see and stop for pedestrians crossing the highway but others do not, increasing the risk of someone already in the crosswalk getting hit.

Council member Don Barnhart called for a traffic light at the corner of 12th Avenue and U.S. 2.

City Manager Shaw told the council that it's unlikely the state will approve one there. But he suggested the city might consider asking for a tax levy to cover at least a portion of the $250,000-$300,000 cost to install a light.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com