Our thin line to the North
Posted by mineralledger on April 23, 2007
This morning in Seattle the public radio station traffic comes on, and the guy says “No blocking problems, except one on Highway 7.” My ears prick up, because unless it is AWFUL, this is not a part of the road system that merits report. “A two-car head-on collision with fatality between Lilly Dale Road, and the town of Elbe.” . And I knew exactly where it was, and what had happened. If you look at the link below, you will see a long straight stretch. This is where impatient people are always zooming around the people that they have been stuck behind for MILES AND MILES. And yes, it looks arrow-straight, but what you can’t tell is that there are dips and hills big enough to conceal an oncoming car. So the passing lines, if you are not familiar with the area, seem to arbitrarily come and go.
Someone in a hurry was passing someone in less of a hurry. Someone headed the other direction didn’t see the oncoming car until it was too late. I don’t know that, for sure. But everyone I’ve talked to who knows that stretch has assumed it was a bad passing moment.
A teacher at Columbia Crest called me. She expected her students to be significantly delayed. This is the worst day for such a thing to happen, because it is the first day of WASL.
<a href=”http://www.google.com/maps?q=Elbe,+WA,+USA&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=46.795124,-122.270086&spn=0.006478,0.011201&t=h&om=1″>Imagery of the probable accident site</a>
It really makes you think about how easy it is to lose our connections to the lowlands. As we discover when there are landslides, if we lose highway 7 between Elbe and the cutoff road, our only option for going north is to go south through Morton and Centralia. And if we lose 7 south of Mineral, the only option is the opposite way. If it happens at times of the year when Skate Creek is open, we can get out over the passes.
If anyone has news of what is happening, and who was involved, let us know.
