Man seeks help on crash-prone corner

Flathead County Commissioner Dale Lauman assured a Foothill Road resident that his plea for assistance regarding a road issue won’t be forgotten by county officials.

After twice discussing Richard Hader’s concerns about people driving so fast on a curve on Foothill Road in front of Hader’s property that they run off the road and hit his fence, Lauman said county officials will look for a solution.

Hader had asked the county to install a guardrail to stop errant vehicles from striking his fence, but commissioners declined that request, saying it was the wrong place to install an expensive guardrail.

Employees at the county road department suggested that Hader move his fence farther back from the road and place boulders in the area between the road and the fence.

Hader countered that the county should have to bear the cost of hauling in those boulders because the county built the road.

County road Foreman John Mohn said the county has installed seven sets of chevrons at the curve to warn drivers of the curve and to slow down, plus lower speed limit signs have been erected. Chevrons are orange signs with the symbol used to indicate “greater than,” marked on the signs.

The signs were effective for about the first year they were up, Mohn said, but drivers soon began to ignore the warnings.

“We’ve done all we can with signs,” Mohn said. “People drive too fast.”

County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said snow-plowing crews try to get to that stretch of road early on snowy mornings because the curve is shaded and gets icy, resulting in even more vehicles going off the road.

“We feel we’ve done every mitigation we can do,” Prunty said.

Hader says he has had to move his animals from the pasture because of the amount of oil in the grass from damaged autos. And he says he spends months each spring cleaning his pasture of broken glass left by cars that hit the fence.

Some of the drivers just try to drive away after striking the fence, Hader said. Most have no insurance to pay for the damage to his property.

He claims no one who’s ever hit the fence has received a ticket from law enforcement, “so people have the idea they can do whatever they want.”

“We realize speed is a problem,” Lauman said. “What the solution is, I don’t know. It is a safety issue. We’re not going to forget.”

While the county won’t install a guardrail, “that doesn’t mean we won’t do something,” Lauman told Hader.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.