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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2015
Bridge: It serves about 7,200 drivers per day State seeks criminal
Continued from Page 1A
rested him and brought him
back to Oregon since the vi-
olation had technically hap-
pened in Oregon. Still, the
driver’s lawyers would later
successfully argue that the
officer should have taken
the driver to a Washington
court for a hearing on the
lawfulness of the arrest.
Then the case went to the
Oregon Court of Appeals
where the officer’s decision
was upheld.
In an Oregonian arti-
cle about the case, Clatsop
County District Attorney
Josh Marquis said, “It’s a
very common problem here
because there is no safe
place to pull someone over,
and the other side of the
bridge is a very rural area
that doesn’t always have an
officer or state trooper near-
by.”
Meanwhile, cars heading
north toward Washington
and cresting the top of the
main span got sudden, star-
tling glimpses of oncoming
cars in their lane.
There were no accidents
or even near misses. At that
particular spot in the bridge,
few cars have reached the
full 55 mph speed limit al-
lowed. Cars in both lanes
are climbing hills and this
slows them down.
Still, what would be rou-
tine on any other road is im-
mediately complex when it
happens on the bridge.
Dangerous driving
With growing economic
links between the Washing-
ton and Oregon coasts, a
bridge that initially served
only a few hundred drivers
per day now carries an aver-
age of 7,200. While serious
wrecks were quite unusual
in the first decades of its
existence, greater traffic
volumes — especially in
tourist season — have made
for some memorably awful
accidents in recent years.
Last August, the bridge
served about 9,800 vehicles
per day, compared to about
5,500 in January.
Troopers from both states
patrol the bridge, though it
is rare to see them and even
rarer to see them stop some-
one on the bridge itself.
“A lot of the time, you’re
creating more of a hazard
to try to stop people on the
bridge,” said Lt. Andrew
Merila of the Oregon State
Police, who works out of an
OSP office in Astoria.
“We do make trips back
and forth,” he said. But most
of these happen at night.
“During the day, even just to
drive across and come back,
a lot of times with heavy
traffic you can’t do any-
thing,” he said.
Astoria’s city limits stop
in the middle of the shipping
lane under the tall main span
and OSP is the primary re-
sponding agency for issues
on the bridge. The ambu-
lance company Medix has
contracts on both sides of the
bridge. Still, Astoria police
are often the first respond-
ers simply because they are
already right there in down-
town Astoria, whereas OSP
troopers might be farther
afield, patrolling U.S. High-
way 30 toward Clatskanie or
down on Highway 26 near
Cannon Beach. The Wash-
ington State Patrol office is
in Naselle, 12 miles away.
In the nearly 50 years
since it was built and
opened, Astoria police and
OSP troopers alike have
seen their fair share of prob-
lems on the bridge: terrible
crashes between family cars
and log trucks, rollovers,
high-speed chases, fend-
er benders, head-on colli-
sions, stalled cars, and even,
in recent years, a car that
flipped over the guardrail
on bridge’s the long, low
middle stretch. No one was
injured in that particular ac-
cident; the tide was out and
the car landed safely on the
shoal sands that are visible
at low tide.
The 4.2-mile-long Asto-
Changing the bridge
File photo
This 2009 photo portrays some of the safety challenges
of the Astoria Bridge. It has narrow shoulders and little
margin for error when drivers follow too closely or wander
from their lane. Increasing traffic volume, bad weather and
impaired drivers are often factors in vehicular accidents
on the bridge.
ria Bridge is narrow. It has
only two lanes and hardly
any shoulder. There’s not
enough room for a patrol
car to easily turn around and
nowhere to go for cars about
to collide. There are only
waist-high sides and the Co-
lumbia River below.
It’s the reason why even
minor crashes on the bridge
tend to be so ugly. A crash
that kills or injures people
can close the entire structure
down for hours. In the tour-
ist-heavy summer months,
an accident on the bridge
can back up traffic through
all of downtown Astoria and
into Washington as well,
whose jurisdiction starts
about half-way across the
bridge’s northern low-rise
span over the river’s lit-
tle-used north channel.
Last September, an acci-
dent that resulted in minor
injuries closed the bridge
for most of the afternoon
as emergency responders
checked for spilled fuel on
the roadway. Drivers on the
Washington side who ar-
rived later and saw the un-
moving line of cars stretch-
ing across the bridge, opted
instead to wait at the Dismal
Nitch rest area and watch
events unfold through bin-
oculars.
Policing the bridge
Though it is a danger-
ous bridge to cross, cyclists
are allowed on the narrow
shoulders and, during the
summer, are often seen
crossing on touring bikes
weighted down with loaded
saddle bags.
But try to cross the bridge
on foot or park and step out
of your car and any nearby
police vehicle will respond
immediately.
Like San Francisco’s
Golden Gate Bridge, the As-
toria Bridge has a history of
suicide. In the last decade, a
handful of people succeeded
in what they set out to do.
The bridge’s massive main
span arches over a deep
shipping channel and people
who fling themselves over
the side are quickly swept
out to sea. Days or weeks
later, the bodies may wash
up on nearby beaches.
On July 25, 2010, a tour-
ist walking along the beach
near Oregon’s South Jetty at
Fort Stevens State Park saw
a body in the surf. The Clat-
sop County medical exam-
iner later identified it as the
body of a 39-year-old Ocean
Park, Wash., man who had
jumped from the Astoria
Bridge a week before.
High-speed pursuits are
slightly more common, peo-
ple weaving and speeding
across the bridge trying to
evade either Washington or
Oregon law enforcement.
Local police say they’ve en-
countered people who (mis-
takenly) think that if they
are fleeing Oregon cops,
they’ll be safe once they
reach Washington and vice
versa.
Wrong. But it is compli-
cated.
An Oregon officer can
witness a driver weaving
back and forth across the
bridge on the Oregon side,
ignoring traffic rules and en-
dangering other drivers. The
Oregon officer can stop that
driver in Washington and if
the driver refuses to go back
to Oregon, the officer can
call in Washington officers
to respond and arrest the
driver. But, in that case, the
driver risks facing charges
in two different states.
“In my experience people
want to go back to Oregon
because they don’t want to
get charged in both states,”
Merila said.
In 2001, an Astoria police
officer stopped a man for
speeding on the bridge. The
officer pulled the man over
on the Washington side, ar-
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After occasional terrible
accidents, there is usual-
ly some grumbling in lo-
cal communities about the
width of the bridge or the
speed limit on the bridge.
Neither will be changing
anytime soon.
It would be prohibitive-
ly expensive to widen the
bridge as well as a massive
undertaking. The current
renovation work alone on
the bridge is expected to
continue into 2021 and, as
of last September, has al-
ready cost more than $17
million.
“Speed limits we always
monitor,” said Lou Torres
with ODOT’s communica-
tion department in an inter-
view in November. ODOT
looks at what roughly 85
percent of drivers are doing
and uses that number to help
set speed limits.
For the bridge, “We have
not seen a reason for having
to change the speed limit
at all,” he said. “Right now
I think we have the right
speed limit … now if you’re
going to lower the speed
limit and enforce it, that’s a
different story.”
County and city govern-
ments have not asked ODOT
to reconsider the speed limit
set on the bridge.
investigation of
Kitzhaber email leak
sure” to Willamette Week
occurred before the emails
had been reviewed for con-
¿GHQWLDOLQIRUPDWLRQ
SALEM — A state
Among the records
agency has asked the Or- quoted in Willamette Week
egon State Police to in- was a memo to Kitzhaber
vestigate the disclosure titled “Cylvia Game Plan:
of some of former Gov. Dec. 2013-Dec. 2018.” It
John Kitzhaber’s personal outlined ways for her to
emails to a reporter.
take a more active role in
Two workers from the Kitzhaber’s administra-
state data center, which tion and position herself to
handles a wide variety of “land lucrative work mak-
technology functions for ing big positive impacts at
most state agencies includ- end of term.”
ing the archival of emails,
The newspaper also
have also been placed on quoted emails outlining
paid leave pending an in- Kitzhaber’s legal strategy
ternal investigation.
during an investigation by
Michael Jordan, direc- the Oregon Government
tor of the Department of Ethics Commission.
Administrative Services,
“Bottom line, this
requested the state police comes down to trust,”
investigation last week Jordan wrote in his email
after a story published in to data center employ-
Willamette Week quoted ees. “Trust in our ability
from Kitzhaber’s private to securely store sensi-
emails. They included tive information; trust in
emails between Kitzhaber our process to determine
DQG KLV ¿DQFpH &\OYLD what information is pub-
Hayes, as well as between lic; trust that we can work
the then-governor and a with agencies to strike
lawyer representing him the appropriate balance
before the state ethics between security and
commission.
transparency. The recent
A spokesman for the breach has upset that bal-
agency, Matt Shelby, ance. We’re working now
would not say why the to restore it.”
two data center employees
Kitzhaber used at least
were placed on leave or two private email accounts
whether it was related to while he was governor. A
the Willamette Week story. Gmail account was used
Kitzhaber resigned last primarily for state busi-
week following a series of ness, an AT&T account for
reports about Hayes’ work personal matters. Emails
for advocacy groups with from both accounts were
an interest in Oregon pub- automatically archived on
lic policy. He’s maintained state servers.
the couple did nothing
Before he resigned,
wrong.
a
representative
for
Oregon law generally Kitzhaber asked that the
requires public disclosure emails from the AT&T
of government records, but account be removed from
certain records considered state servers. Technicians
SULYDWH RU FRQ¿GHQWLDO DUH balked. Jordan said in his
exempt from release. In an note to data center workers
email last week to staff at that “Kitzhaber’s emails
the data center, Jordan said have been secured in their
the “clandestine disclo- entirety.”
By JONATHAN J.
COOPER
The Associated Press
UNIONTOWN HONORS OUR HEROS
U n ion tow n A ssociation , In c. d isplays
A m erican flags from th e rou n d abou t to
3rd St. on all n ation al h olid ays
an d local festivals.
Thank you to the following people who helped keep
the flags flying in Uniontown:
Name of Donor
Person to Honor
Bernie Bjork..................................................Col. Delbert L. Bjork
Ruth Hope....................................................Grover Utzinger
Liz Banholzer................................................John A. Banholzer &
LaVerne Paynter
Bruce & Suzie Conner....................................Kevin Conner
Michael Simmons..........................................William Jalonen-John &
Evelyn Palmrose,
James & Florence Simmons
Cyndi Haggren Cahill....................................Chip Cahill
Charles Hoell, Jr............................................Arne Jylha
Mary Todd....................................................Richard Todd
Jo Ann Dawley..............................................John Dawley & Juli Dawley
Tom & Carol Tramontina..............................Reno Tramontina
Darla Salo.....................................................”Lolly” Rytsala
June Spence.................................................. George Fulton-June Spence
Helen Mack...................................................John Fransen
Cheryl Malinen ..............................................Bruce Morgan
Joyce Bondietti ..............................................Carl Bondietti
Julie Kearney................................................. Evelyn & John Palmrose
Astoria Mini Mart...........................................Larry Kotila
Donna Gustafson...........................................Grover Utzinger,
Gustafson boys
(father & son),
Anna & Don Mitchell,
Ruth & Donna
D on a tion s for fla gs, beca use
they love to see fla gs flyin g in U n ion tow n :
Ron & Charlene Larson
Ruth Hope
Bob Reiter
Margaret Chopping
Bruce & Kristiana Berney
Bridgewater Bistro
Jim Jarvis
Jerry & Marilyn Gustafson
Karen Van Cleave
Dave & Carolyn Brooks
George Siverson
