Politics & Government

State Sen. Roach Revisits Traffic Discussion Following Accident that Seriously Injured Teen

Sen. Pam Roach picks up from 2007 when residents told WSDOT officials then that they did not want a roundabout at the intersection of SR 169 and S.E. 416th Street but preferred a traditional traffic signal.

Given how stagnant the economy has been in the last few years, it's not surprising that state Sen. Pam Roach's (R-Auburn) district, which includes Enumclaw, has not grown much since 2007. 

Roach herself recognized this fact when chatting with Patch Tuesday after she asked Washington state Department of Transportation Regional Administrator Lorena Eng whether the intersection of State Route 169 and S.E. 416th Street might now warrant a traffic signal following an that left a 17-year-old boy in critical condition.

Eng replied in an email this week that no, it doesn't. There has not been significant changes in traffic volumes since 2007, she said, so "the SR 169 and SE 416th intersection does not meet the national criteria we use to warrant the installation of a traffic signal."

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Roach said she wasn't surprised by the finding but felt the question needed to be asked as this particular intersection was close to having a roundabout installed back in 2007, when according to the Courier-Herald, engineers identified it as a "high accident location."

This February 2007 item from the Courier-Herald reported that 18 collisions occurred in the previous five years and "a dozen of those resulted in injury to drivers or their passengers."

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While the majority of residents in the area may have been open to the installation of a traffic signal there, they did not want a roundabout, which was what WSDOT engineers had planned, Roach told Patch.

Led by Roach, who was upset about what she described as less than open tactics on the part of the WSDOT in pursuing the roundabout option without adequate public input, citizens were able to gather and made it known they did not want the roundabout.

"I believe in open government," she told Patch, "and the DOT wasn't open here."

Read the Courier-Herald's account of one of these 2007 hearings. 

The issue was put to bed by May 2007, where, as the Courier-Herald reported, Eng put in writing that the roundabout plan would not proceed.

More recently, however, the September accident that left  in critical condition has brought the issue of safety at this intersection back to the forefront.

Patch has contacted Eng for more details about what kinds of requirements are necessary for a traffic signal as well as more recent traffic data for the intersection. We hope to bring you more details in the next week.

Meanwhile, some good news: Susan Gregg-Hanson at Harborview Medical Center reported on Tuesday that the boy was now upgraded to satisfactory condition, meaning he's no longer in the ICU.


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