Readers react to an article about a team of WSU civil engineering students redesigning areas of Highway 26 to increase safety. The project was created in response to several student deaths in car crashes in recent years. The team is taking crash statistics to determine the best way to design the route. Currently, there are no plans to implement the suggested improvements.

Read the full article here.

Ann Parks: “There are many ways this highway can be improved and made safer and this is a great addition. More lighting, electronic caution signs in poor driving conditions, rumble strips and striping as well as enhanced law enforcement presence during heavy travel times would help reduce distracted driving, speeding and accidents. Driver behaviors, such as speeding and distracted driving, are issues to be sure, and are not exhibited by college students only. Any effort, including this one, to help make this highway safer is welcomed and it will save lives.”

Andy Elliott: “It’s not the highway’s fault. It’s 18- to 24-year-old kids that think they are invincible making bad choices. Driving while under the influence is a factor as well. No amount of changes to the highway will make inebriated drivers better.”

Mary Beth Rivetti: “People fall asleep and drift into traffic and kill other people. Risky drivers pass on a double yellow line going twice the speed limit. The people that are injured or who are killed in these accidents are not always the ones who are driving erratically.”

Olivia Moseley: “As a recent civil engineering grad, I can admire these student’s drive to make travel safer. Our job as civil engineers is to make civilization more efficient and safer. It’s a good project, but the real reason this road hasn’t been done is all money related. The state has to fund it, for the small percentage of days a year where there are lots of drivers on that road which makes it dangerous. It’s sad, but it’s true. Maybe WSU as an institution should be making more of a stink about it with the state, then maybe someone will listen.”