NEWS
A6 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAy, JANuARy 30, 2019
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Attendees at a regional school and childcare nutrition
training sample different recipes for lunch at Umatilla High
School in 2018.
Shutdown may have impact
on local meal programs
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Staff photo by E.J. Harris, File
Traffic drives south on Highway 97 near the Cow Canyon Rest Area east of Shaniko on Oct. 20, 2018.
Speeding, crashes rising after speed limit change
By ANTONIO SIERRA
STAFF WRITER
Nearly two years after
speed limits were increased
on highways in central and
Eastern Oregon, a state-
funded analysis shows that
serious wrecks on those
roads have gone up at a
faster rate than places where
the limit was unchanged.
Using four years of data
on crashes across state
highways and automatic
traffic recorders to mea-
sure speeds, the Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation and Portland State
University found that fatal
crashes went up by 36 per-
cent on highways raised to
70 miles per hour and rose
67 percent on roads that
were increased to 65 miles
per hour.
The Oregon Legisla-
ture voted to raise the speed
limit on Interstate 84 from
Ontario to The Dalles,
Interstate 82 in Umatilla
County, and Highway 95 in
southeastern Oregon from
65 miles per hour to 70.
Sections of Highway 395,
Highway 97, and Highway
20 jumped from 55 to 65.
The bill received bipartisan
support in both chambers of
the Legislature, was signed
into law by Gov. Kate
Brown and ODOT made
the changes in March 2016.
Portland State’s study
looked at the year following
the speed limit increases,
comparing it to data from
the three years prior.
Chris Monsere, a PSU
professor and the chair of
the university’s civil and
environmental
engineer-
ing department, said he pre-
viously collaborated with
ODOT on two different
reviews on the literature
surrounding speed limit
increases.
Monsere and research-
ers Sirisha Kothuri and
Jason Anderson found that
speeding increased once the
speed limits were relaxed.
In 70 mile per hour
zones, vehicles traveling
faster than 75 went up by 12
percent while drivers going
past 85 went up by nearly 1
percent. In the 65 mile per
hour zones, the most signif-
icant jump was in the per-
centage of vehicles going
65 or higher, which went up
by 13.4 points.
“These preliminary
findings of the analysis
are consistent with
other related research
and analysis that have
found increased crash
frequency and severity
with increased speed
limits”
ODOT analysis
In comparison, none of
the control group highway
segments had an increase in
speeders above 2 percent,
and there was virtually no
increase in the number of
cars traveling 85 miles per
hour or higher.
Crashes were up on
raised speed limit highways
across-the-board, and in
most cases, those increases
were larger than the control
segments.
Crashes that caused seri-
ous injury or deaths rose by
36 percent on 70 mile per
hour roads, but that num-
ber also went up by 37 per-
cent on control segment
highways.
The real contrast was
on 65 mile per hour zones,
which saw a 67 percent
increase compared with the
21-point increase seen on
the control roads.
Despite the disparity in
crashes between speed lim-
it-increased roads and the
control segments, traffic
volume was only 10 per-
cent higher in the speedier
zones.
“These preliminary find-
ings of the analysis are con-
sistent with other related
research and analysis that
have found increased crash
frequency and severity with
increased speed limits,” the
study states.
Studying ODOT data
and Oregon State Police
press releases, a Novem-
ber East Oregonian analy-
sis found that fatalities from
traffic crashes rose 10 per-
cent in the 26 months after
the speed limit increase as
opposed to a 3.5 percent
decline in traffic deaths
statewide.
Rep. Greg Barreto
hadn’t read Portland State’s
analysis and didn’t want to
comment, but he previously
defended it after the EO‘s
analysis, saying he wanted
to see how many crashes
were attributed to drunk or
distracted driving.
Given the variety of fac-
tors that could lead to a
crash, Monsere said it’s dif-
ficult to determine cause of
crash on a wide scale.
“You can think of a crash
as having a random nature
to it,” he said.
But he also reiterated
that there’s a significant
collection of research that
shows that traffic collisions
go up when speeds do.
Monsere said there’s
other limitations to his
analysis.
Ideally, the study would
be able to look at three
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years of data after the speed
limit increases went into
effect instead of just one.
And since most of the
well-traveled highways in
Eastern Oregon already had
their speed limits raised, he
had to look at other parts
of the state for control
segments.
“They’re not ideal
matches,” he said.
Monsere said he’d like
to do a follow-up study not
only with more crash data,
but with more accurate
speed readings as well.
While automatic traffic
records are sparsely located
on Eastern Oregon’s two-
lane highways, Monsere
said the next analysis would
use new software that uses
numerous GPS data points
to more accurately mea-
sure speed and differentiate
between car and semitruck.
In the meantime, ODOT
is already taking some
safety measures after PSU’s
analysis.
Troy
Costales,
the
ODOT Transportation and
Employee Safety Division
administrator, told the Ore-
gon Transportation Com-
mission at a Jan. 17 meet-
ing that ODOT planned to
continue to direct resources
toward speed enforcement
and could also install new
signs and other infrastruc-
ture to prevent offroad and
head-on crashes on two-
lane roads.
In a Friday interview,
Costales said the transpor-
tation commission is also
starting a long-term discus-
sion on establishing a pro-
cess to change speed limits
outside legislative acts.
President
Donald
Trump agreed on Friday
to temporarily end the fed-
eral government shutdown,
reopening the government
through Feb. 15.
It’s good news for the
nearly 800,000 furloughed
federal workers who were
not working or receiving
pay during the shutdown,
but depending on what
happens next, local people
and programs could still be
affected.
Area school districts
rely on grants from the
U.S. Department of Agri-
culture (USDA) to fund
food programs for low-in-
come students.
Most said they were
covered for the next few
weeks, but if a shutdown
lasts beyond next month,
they’ll be more concerned.
“We’re really watching
the February deadlines,”
Umatilla School District
Superintendent Heidi Sipe
said. “Currently, we’re not
seeing an impact on child
nutrition; however, if the
shutdown continues past
February, we may have
some struggles.”
According to a press
release from the Oregon
Department of Education
Child Nutrition Programs,
the ODE will continue
processing and paying for
claims for federal assis-
tance on food programs
throughout March 2019.
The press release stated
that USDA, which con-
tracts with vendors to ship
food products to school,
would continue operating
normally through Febru-
ary, and that most products
up through that point have
already been purchased.
But the press release
said if the shutdown lasts
beyond February, it’s
unclear what will happen
with food deliveries, as
well as with ordering food
for the following school
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year, which is usually done
in February.
The
Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Pro-
gram (SNAP) is another
program that local fami-
lies have seen affected by
the shutdown. The federal
program gives low-income
families some supplemen-
tal funds to purchase food.
Belit Burke, the pro-
gram designer for DHS’
self sufficiency program,
said it’s still too early to
tell what the real impact of
the shutdown will be. Ore-
gon beneficiaries received
their SNAP money for Feb-
ruary a few weeks early to
help with the lapse in fund-
ing. But they won’t receive
more benefits in February,
even though the shutdown
is temporarily over.
“Those benefits have to
last,” she said.
She said the amount that
each family receives var-
ies, but the average case-
load receives $209 per
month.
“It’s meant to be a sup-
plement, but it ends up
being many people’s whole
budget, so they live pretty
lean,” Burke said.
Other nutrition pro-
grams, like the WIC
(Women, Infants and
Children) program, are
expected to be covered
through February, as well.
The SNAP program is
a different funding stream
than the SNAP-Ed pro-
gram, said Angie Tread-
well, the OSU Extension
Service coordinator of
SNAP-Ed (Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Pro-
gram Education). Tread-
well said her program has
already been funded for the
entire fiscal year, so they
will not be affected by the
shutdown any time soon.
That program provides
ways for families to learn
how to use their avail-
able resources to eat better,
including family cooking
classes and food tastings at
local schools.
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