Lane County urges safer driving after 220 rural crashes since 2018

Lane County is sharpening its safety message this April with a stark warning for rural roads: 220 people were killed or seriously injured in crashes from 2018 to 2022, and alcohol impairment was the top contributing factor in every serious crash.

The county is tying that warning to National Alcohol Awareness Month and Distracted Driving Awareness Month, arguing that the danger is not abstract. Lane County says the most common crash type in those serious rural-road wrecks was roadway departure, the kind of crash that often follows a driver drifting off course, losing control or taking a curve too fast. County public safety materials say most fatal and severe-injury crashes can be prevented by cutting speeding, intoxication and distraction.

Officials are also linking the message to ordinary habits that drivers may dismiss as harmless. Cell phone use and any other activity that pulls attention from the road count as distraction, the county says, and drivers are being urged to make plans before a spring outing, wedding, concert or other event if alcohol will be part of the evening.

Lane County Public Works says it maintains more than 1,440 miles of roadway and is using limited transportation-safety resources where they can have the biggest impact. That means focusing on high-risk roads and adding systemic countermeasures such as rumble strips on high-speed rural roads. County safety planning has also identified roads with repeated fatal and severe-injury crashes, including 30th Avenue.

The county’s work is part of a longer state response to the risks on rural roads. In 2019, the Oregon Legislature directed the Oregon Department of Transportation to create a county safety corridor program because of the growing number of fatal and severe-injury crashes on county rural roads. Lane County says the first seven miles of London Road qualified for that program.

Public health officials say the local crash problem fits a broader statewide alcohol trend. Oregon Health Authority says excessive alcohol use is the third leading cause of preventable death among Oregonians and is responsible for more than 2,500 deaths a year. The agency also says more than one in five Oregon adults drinks excessively, and that alcohol-related harm includes motor-vehicle crashes and violence.

Luis Pimentel-Mendia, Lane County’s alcohol and drug prevention coordinator, said the month is a chance for people to rethink their relationship with alcohol and support others trying to cut back. Lane County’s broader traffic-safety message is aimed at a simple goal: fewer families finding out too late how quickly one mistake on a rural road can turn into a fatal or life-changing crash.