| The in basket: Fred Lockett says he has would like
to know why vehicles traveling northeast on Old Military Road in
Central Kitsap are allowed to make left turns onto Waaga Way, also
known as Highway 303.
“I have seen several accidents at the intersection and have had several close calls myself,” said Fred. “Traffic southbound on Waaga Way travels around a somewhat blind curve and has vehicles pulling out in front of them. Because of the same curve, drivers exiting Old Military Rd have a short line of sight, thus a very small window to turn safely onto Waaga Way. “I believe left turns should not be allowed at this intersection and some type of barrier should be installed to prevent them,” he said. “People that live on or near Old Military have other options they can use to access Waaga Way.” The out basket: Steve Bennett. traffic operations engineer in the state’s Olympic Region, says the accident history at Old Military and Waaga Way doesn’t support Fred’s idea. “Closing movements at intersections is generally controversial within the affected communities,” he said. “People are very resistant to being forced to travel greater distances than they are accustomed to traveling. “We must have a significant collision history in order to justify elimination of any existing intersection movements. In this case, I do not believe we have sufficient justification to restrict the left turn movements. |
“A review of the Washington State Patrol collision records found that there were six collisions at this intersection in the last three years. Two of these collisions may have been related to the sight distance at the intersection. Fortunately, none … have resulted in either fatal or serious injuries.
“When looking at overall collision numbers, there are nearly 300 intersections in our region that have a higher crash frequency than this intersection.
“If we used the number of collisions at Old Military Road as our criteria for closing intersections or restricting movements within intersections, we have a lot of closing to do.”
I have lived on that road for most of my life. Most people that live on that road don’t go that way anyway. If people want to go to Silverdale, they just take Bucklin Hill Rd or the Central Valley Rd on-ramp.