‘Begging for a change’: Dangerous Whatcom County intersection converted to a four-way stop
A rural Whatcom County intersection now has a four-way stop with flashing LED lights, a move that officials hope will prevent a repeat of the Halloween night wreck that killed an 11-year-old Sumas girl.
Public Works Department officials were studying traffic at the corner of South Pass and Goodwin roads east of Everson before the death of Yaretzi Davila-Estrada, who was killed by an alleged drunken driver that authorities said was going more than 100 mph.
“The community’s been begging for a change here,” Whatcom County Councilman Ben Elenbaas said during discussion at the panel’s Dec. 3 meeting. Council members voted unanimously to hold a public hearing Jan. 14. County Executive Satpal Sidhu then authorized immediate action.
“There has been a lot of issues at this intersection, for no apparent reason because one direction that you come up to at this intersection, you slow down to 25 when you go by the (lumber) mill,” Elenbaas said. “So there really is no reason that there are more accidents at this intersection than any other intersection in Whatcom County. However, there are. And the community has been in an uproar for years about this intersection.”
Public Works began looking at the intersection in September 2023 because of an increasing number of collisions, according to a Nov. 5 report from Ryan Morrison, manager of the traffic engineering division.
There were eight collisions at the intersection from September 2023 to August 2024, according to Morrison’s report, which used data from the Washington State Patrol. Six of the crashes were caused by drivers on Goodwin Road who failed to yield at South Pass Road.
There have been 14 crashes at the intersection in the past five years, 21 in the past 10 years, and 28 in the past 20 years, Public Works spokeswoman Mandy Feutz told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
“(There were) five or more reported crashes in a 12-month period or six or more reported crashes in a 36-month period that were of the type susceptible to correction by the installation of all-way stop control,” Morrison said in his report.
The Halloween night crash is the only fatality at the intersection, but there have been two other traffic deaths near the intersection in the past 10 years, Feutz told The Herald.
The cost of installing the solar-powered flashing stop signs will be about $9,500 to $10,000, and work was completed Thursday morning, Feutz said.
The traffic study found that most drivers were traveling at or near the speed limit, which is 50 mph on South Pass Road, and 25 mph on Goodwin Road south of the intersection and 45 mph north of the intersection.
Average daily traffic on South Pass is 1,690 cars and trucks east of intersection and 1,844 west of intersection. For Goodwin Road, average daily traffic is 1,351 north of intersection and 1,922 south of intersection, Feutz said.
This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
