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PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Sardine Canyon, Utah is
bounded by two counties, Cache and Box Elder. The counties are connected
through the canyon by a dangerous, narrow and winding road. In 1996,
the canyon road was widened from two to four lanes, in an effort to
improve traffic safety through the area. However, the wider road encouraged
more vehicles to use the highway, and to significantly increase their
driving speed. Since 1996, there have been 15 fatal crashes on the Sardine
Canyon Road, 13 from head-on collisions. In January 1999, three people
were killed in crashes within a 3-day period.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
To address the serious
safety issues resulting from the Sardine Canyon Road expansion, the
South Box Elder County Safe Communities program developed the Sardine
Canyon Project, in 1999. The project sought to reduce the number of
traffic crashes in Sardine Canyon through the following objectives:
- Raising awareness of the
hazards on the Sardine Canyon Road
- Forming a coalition of
public and private partners representing both Cache and Box Elder
Counties to identify and support solutions
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
To increase
their potential for effectively addressing safety concerns about the
Sardine Canyon Road, community leaders, police officials, local businesses
and individuals from both Cache and Box Elder Counties joined together
to form a coalition. The coalition invited the Utah Department of Transportation
(UDOT), local news media and the general public to participate in its
first meeting. Discussions included the magnitude of the problem, and
suggestions for road improvements to prevent further crashes on the
Sardine Canyon Road.
Coalition members
agreed that the definitive solution was to install center concrete barriers
on the canyon road to prevent head-on collisions. In the interim, until
the barriers could be installed, the coalition identified several immediate
solutions to the problem:
- Lowering
the speed limit through the canyon corridor
- Increasing
speed limit enforcement
- Installing
warning signs and flashing reduced-speed limit signs
- Improved
road maintenance during winter weather, including the installation
of large electronic signs at each end of the canyon to warn drivers
of poor weather and road conditions
Both newspaper
and television media featured repeated stories about the dangerous Sardine
Canyon Road, increasing motorists and UDOT awareness of the number of
deaths and injuries that have occurred in this area.
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