Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Palouse City Council will consider a revised ordinance at its Nov. 22 meeting as part of an effort to reduce speed limits coming into the town. The effort follows two accidents this fall on Highway 27 south of Palouse.
At the Nov. 8 council meeting, representatives authorized a revision of a 1983 ordinance which set speeds for highways 27 and 272. The revision would call for a uniform highway speed of 25 miles per hour within city limits.
Ultimately the change would need to be approved by Washington’s secretary of transportation.
Palouse City Attorney Stephen Bishop is writing the new ordinance.
The two accidents at the edge of Palouse prompted Police Officer Joe Handley to contact the Washington Department of Transportation to request some kind of safety barrier at the spot on Highway 27 coming into town from Pullman.
An accident Oct. 30 sent two people to Pullman Regional Hospital with the male driver arrested for DUI. The car, estimated traveling at 80 mph, hit train tracks, went airborne and came to a stop in Ancel Jeffers Lions Club Park next to the car wash.
On Sept. 11, a car hit the tracks at a high speed, went off the road and ended with the car’s hood in the Palouse River.
Both drivers were unfamiliar with the area.
“They’re not negotiating to the right,” said Handley. “They’re going too fast. Speed, alcohol and drugs were involved with both accidents.”
The speed limit changes to 25 mph right at the tracks, which is next to a McGregor building.
In the early 2000s, a fatality at the curve occurred when a car went off the road, across the park and into the river. The driver was ejected and drowned.
After the second recent incident, Handley contacted WSDOT Nov. 1.
“I just asked them to look into this,” he said. “I don’t know what the issue is, but we need to change something.”
On Highway 27, Palouse city limits begin north of Koenig Road. Mayor Michael Echanove proposes that the speed should be marked at 25 for approximately a quarter-mile out from the tracks.
“These accidents do lend credence to what the city’s been saying,” said Echanove.
His previous contacts with WSDOT about the curve proved moot.
“You can’t build safety for someone who’s drunk going 80 miles per hour,” Echanove said of what WSDOT representatives have explained before.
As it stands now, the Highway 27 speed limit increases from 25 at the railroad tracks to 35 and to 45 by the end of city limits.
The 45-mile-per-hour stretch changes to 55 at milepost 14.57.
In September, following an inquiry from Palouse residents John and Chris Bofenkamp, WSDOT performed a radar-gun speed study on the road.
Echanove and the city council’s focus on the Highway 27 entrance to town is due to this traffic study, since, in order for the state secretary of transportation to look into the matter, a traffic study is required.
The study revealed that cars were traveling the desired speed.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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