Smith issues Highway 11 safety update

SALEM – (News release from State Rep. Greg Smith) Today (Wednesday), Representative Greg Smith (R-Heppner) was notified by Representative Tawna Sanchez, who is Co-Chair of the full Joint Ways and Means Committee, that Oregon State Police is increasing its presence in the Milton-Freewater area (below is a letter that Co-Chair Sanchez shared with Rep. Smith). The agency is collaborating in their efforts with the Milton-Freewater Police Department, the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office, and the Washington State Patrol.

“Constituents of District 57 have made it clear that Highway 11 is dangerous and that action needs to be taken,” said Representative Smith, “I’m pleased to announce that OSP is increasing their presence in and coordination with the Milton-Freewater community to enhance safety along Highway 11”.

Letter from OSP Capt. Kyle Kennedy to Sanchez:

Representative Sanchez,

The OSP Pendleton Office is assigning available Troopers to work the Milton-Freewater area on a daily basis unless other priorities dictate their response and resource elsewhere. OSP is currently coordinating with our High Visibility Enforcement Unit to conduct saturations in the Milton-Freewater Area. These saturations are a proven method of increasing traffic safety in areas of concern. OSP will be collaborating with the Milton-Freewater Police Department, The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol in an effort to facilitate a coordinated saturation of HWY 11 in both Oregon and Washington.

In addition to our patrol presence, OSP has engaged with community members at a public forum to better help understand their concerns and explain OSPs capabilities and limitations of traffic enforcement and their desired increase for traffic safety. OSP has also engaged with ODOT and discussed the engineering and design factors which we believe will contribute to an increase in traffic safety in the area. This section of HWY 11 approaching State line which has a significant amount of entry points onto the Highway from local businesses.  With the volume of traffic on HWY 11 , these entry/exit points are a significant contributor to crashes occurring in the area as opposed to excessive speed alone.  While speed is undoubtedly a contributing factor, local Troopers report vehicles failing to yield right of way or safely enter the highway to be more problematic than speed. 

OSP currently has a very aggressive hiring campaign to fill agency vacancies and are employing new strategies to address the hiring challenges faced by law enforcement nationwide. Filling our five vacancies in the Pendleton office will help increase our presence in the area.

We believe the above factors collectively will have an impact on increasing traffic safety.

Respectfully,

Capt. Kyle Kennedy

Government/Media Relations

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