PORT ANGELES — It was a veritable who’s-who of public safety figures, traffic coordinators, elected officials and North Olympic Peninsula business representatives.
And the objective they shared was clear:
Let’s do whatever we can to prevent more carnage on Peninsula highways.
The several dozen invited guests who attended Monday’s four-hour brainstorming session — a joint effort of the state Department of Transportation and Traffic Safety Commission — were presented with daunting traffic-collision data specific to a 30-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101, reflecting years 2000 through 2002.
The segment — stretching from Laird’s Corner west of Port Angeles to the East Jefferson County line — was identified as the target for improvement.
State Patrol Lt. Clint Casebolt reminded the group that 11 crashes claiming 15 lives have occurred along Peninsula state highways since Jan. 1.
But concentrating on fatalities alone is missing the mark, Casebolt said.
Other serious-injury collisions, which could easily have turned fatal or disabling, took place along the 30-mile stretch targeted for relief.
Monday’s meeting jump-started an organized campaign undertaken in several other regions around the state — a Corridor Safety Project.
Working from experience, the state traffic officials helped the group start at ground-level.
“Everyone has the solutions. We don’t need solutions,” said Matthew Enders, traffic operations engineer for the Department of Transportation.
“What we want to do is identify the problems.”
Enders and Monica Petersen-Smith, program manager for the Traffic Safety Commission, acted as facilitators for the group, explaining the program and soliciting input from locals familiar with Clallam County’s particular traffic perils.
Once a consensus was reached to implement a local corridor safety project, Clallam County Sheriff Joe Martin was named as chair.