By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
BLODGETT – Benton County Sheriff Lt. Toby Bottorff’s patrol SUV sits in a wide spot along U.S. Highway 20 just a few hundred yards west of the Blodgett store.
The traffic officer has an unobstructed view of cars and trucks barreling east and his radar beeps constantly as they speed downhill along the busy highway linking the central Oregon coast to the Willamette Valley.
The posted speed limit is 55 mph. Few drivers do that on a stretch of the highway that has seen a record nine fatalities this year.
“70 is too fast in a 55,” Bottorff tells a reporter tagging along for a few hours of his special, overtime patrol. “You can write tickets for that all day. But realistically, 73 and higher – you’re going to get a ticket.”
And that he does to drivers who don’t spot his black SUV soon enough to slow down before reaching the Blodget store, where there’s a dangerous mix of parking lots, occasional congestion and Highway 180 leading off into the hills to the north.
Highway 20 from the Lincoln County line to Philomath has been a focus for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office this year because of the spike in driver deaths. The agency is using special state grants to pay overtime to deputies to work the highway to try to get traffic to slow down.
The patrol deputies issued 589 tickets through November, 546 of those for speeding – a 36 percent increase in tickets over the number issued in 2023 with a month left in the year. The fastest ticketed speed was 114 miles per hour.
That doesn’t include the warnings, which often make up half of the traffic stops.
“Generally, if I think a warning will work, I will do that,” Bottorff says. “We have discretion. But tickets change behavior more than warnings.”
Why crashes happen
Nine people died in Highway 20 crashes this year – more than triple the usual number.
An analysis this summer by YachatsNews indicates deaths on the 50 miles between Newport and Philomath are related to a combustible mix of issues including:
- The nature of the highway, which is a combination of narrow, twisting two-lane pavement, two wide lanes with an occasional third passing lane, and then sometimes four lanes with two going in either direction;
- State highway projects that spent hundreds of millions of dollars to straighten and widen it;
- Increased vehicle speeds as the road improved;
- A 30 percent increase in the number of cars and trucks the last nine years to 7,200 a day in 2023 and traffic that can spike to 10,000 a day on a summer weekend;
- The lack of barriers between east- and westbound lanes in the wider stretches of the highway, which could prevent drivers crossing over into oncoming traffic and causing a head-on collision – a factor in seven of the nine fatalities this year.
Bottorff says the big increase in Highway 20’s fatalities brought more attention to the stretch from Philomath to the Lincoln County line just west of Blodgett.
But not so much for Oregon State Police or the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
State police rely on two troopers who live in Philomath but work out of the Newport office to check the road on their trips to and from home. Lincoln County Sheriff Curtis Landers says his office is too understaffed and would require mandatory deputy overtime to patrol the highway.
“We’ve taken more of the lead because we’re staffed up and have the grants,” Bottorff said.
The grants come from the Oregon Department of Transportation, which hands out money to agencies who apply to tackle such issues as speeding, distracted or drunken driving, seat belt use, or pedestrian safety.
Because it is fully staffed, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office applied and received four grants this year. That makes it easier, Bottorff says, to find deputies and even higher-ranking officers willing to take on the four-hour overtime shifts to conduct the extra patrols.
“Even the sheriff could be out here on overtime,” Bottorff says. “They (ODOT) want people on the road.”
How ODOT grants work
ODOT has a transportation safety office that implements a highway safety plan and related programs and oversees millions in safety-related grants.
“Our main responsibility is to improve the safety of all roadway users, and all modes of travel in Oregon through education and outreach,” ODOT regional spokeswoman Mindy McCartt told YachatsNews. “The overall goal is to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries on Oregon’s roadways.”
ODOT grant funds come primarily from the federal government and focus on speed, distracted driving, seatbelt/child safety seat use, bike/pedestrian safety, motorcycle safety, impaired driving, work zone safety, and other smaller programs.
For city and county law enforcement agency high-visibility enforcement grants, for example, agencies must detail the problem they are trying to address with traffic statistics, crash data, and existing strategies addressing the issue, McCartt said.
The high visibility enforcement grants, she said, are designed to find, cite and educate dangerous drivers but also increase police visibility of such operations as a warning to others.
“Their focus is exclusively on the behavioral side of transportation not on infrastructure or equipment,” McCartt said.
In fiscal 2024, ODOT awarded $3.05 million to 74 city police departments and $1.37 million to 22 sheriff’s offices across the state. For just speed enforcement, the agency awarded $610,000 to city and county agencies; Oregon State Police got another $125,000.
Safety mission
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office is also working with ODOT to help fund a full-time traffic safety deputy, who would focus exclusively on the five types of driving behaviors that contribute the most to fatalities.
The sheriff also has ODOT money available through January for extra patrols to deal with speed, impaired and distracted driving, seatbelt use and pedestrian safety. Bottorff doesn’t think the agency will have any trouble filling the shifts, even those around Christmas and New Years.
“We have a bunch of hungry deputies who believe in the mission to keep the roads safe,” Bottorff said. “And when they sign up for speed patrol, they go out west because they know they can write a lot of tickets.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
The warnings can be more productive if there is a significant penalty on the second offense. The violations are a permanent record on the state computers. The second violation should include confiscation of the vehicle and a fine up to $,2500 and suspension of license for 6 months if speeds exceed 20 miles over posted speed. This is about saving lives and harsh and meaningful fines are appropriate.
I drive truck and getting passed in no passing zones don’t have a meaning when they see a truck. If the sheriffs department bought or leased a truck and just drove around they’d see more than they bargained for and don’t want to leave out a lot of cell phone usage
If you truly drive the posted speed limit on Highway 20 you will be constantly passed by other vehicles including commercial trucks so they can travel faster than the speed limit. I don’t believe the road has been designed to accommodate drivers that encounter other vehicles that choose not to travel at speeds above the posted speed limit. That makes highways 20 and 126 between the coast and the Willamette Valley very dangerous roads. In my experience, it is a rare occasion to drive valley to coast on one of these roads and not observe one or more drivers attempting illegal or dangerous passing. The same applies to Highway 101.
If I read that right 7 of the 9 fatalities were crossing over the center into oncoming traffic. Center dividers would definitely help, especially when it’s foggy. And some flashing yellow lights that tell you when you’re coming up to congested areas.
If they(police) are allowing people to drive 73 in a 55 zone then they are the problem. Start writing tickets for anything over 65 and you will se accidents drastically drop. People know know they can go 70. Why have laws if no one follows them?
Some speeding begins at the west end of the most recent “straightening” just after/east of the west end turn off for Eddyville and continues off & on until Philomath (certain sections). Too bad Lincoln county Sheriff’s office is so under staffed it won’t/can’t submit a grant request. I have a little choice in which day I drive to/from Corvallis (1x/week) so I can avoid the busiest times on 20 during the week, even so I can expect to be tailgated (especially if it’s dark & raining hard & I’m driving 50-55 mph) or passed on a double yellow. If it’s dry & day time (no fog, no black ice) I’ll drive 60 but there’s always some drivers who think 70-75 mph is the “right speed” range for 20. Seems particularly stupid when I see the vehicle that tailgated & then passed me on a double yellow get stuck a couple of minutes later behind a truck (which it tailgates) until a passing lane is reached. For awhile I’d see an OSP vehicle patrolling or parked along 20 in Lincoln county. Meant traffic would move a bit slower for a week or so. Ticketing, maybe getting a license suspension may be about all that has an effect on some people, unless/until they injure or kill someone and/or themselves, that is. Too bad there’s no passenger rail between Newport (or Toledo) and Corvallis–I’d far rather take a train even if it took a little longer.