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ODOT tries to slow drivers at deadly Highway 140 intersection A Dec. 28 crash between a passenger vehicle and a truck killed two people at the intersection of Highway 140 and Kershaw Road. [Submitted photo] Tuesday Jan 30, 2018 at 6:11 PM Jan 31, 2018 at 2:17 PM Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune WHITE CITY — Oregon Department of Transportation officials say traffic-slowing measures will be installed within a month at the intersection of Kershaw Road and Highway 140. The project, estimated to be complete by the end of February, would include a reduced speed limit, rumble strips, larger stop signs on Kershaw and signs encouraging daylight headlight use. Three dozen crashes have been reported in the area since 2007, including a Dec. 28 crash at the intersection of Highway 140 and Kershaw that claimed two lives. A fatal crash occurred Monday night at the nearby intersection of Highway 140 and Lakeview Drive. The short-term fixes are aimed at reducing traffic issues prior to a $2.2 million project involving larger-scale improvements planned for the area by 2020. It will include a highway-style roundabout near Atlantic Avenue, about a half-mile west of Kershaw, where Foothill Road will be extended to intersect with Highway 140. ODOT spokesperson Gary Leaming said short-term improvements will be made by state transportation crews, not private contractors, enabling the upgrades to occur sooner. “We don’t have a cost estimate yet, but the work will be done by state forces, so we will be able to get it done sometime in the next several weeks,” Leaming said. “We’re pretty confident we’ll get a finalized plan shortly and get a move on it right away. We’ll be upgrading signs at the intersection, making stop signs very large, adding retro-reflective striping and adjusting the stripes. When you come into the turn lane, it will be narrowed up to slow you down.” In addition, Leaming said, ODOT has received approval from state officials for a speed-limit reduction from 55 to 50 mph on Highway 140 for 700 feet on either side of Kershaw Road. "Lights on for Safety” signs will be installed on 140 from Highway 62 to about Meridian Road (distances corrected from previous version). Short-term improvements were ordered by ODOT officials last month after a series of recent crashes in the area near Kershaw. The intersection has long been known for a dangerous mix of traffic, with vehicles on Kershaw Road crossing or turning onto busy Highway 140, the main route between the Rogue Valley and Klamath Falls. The area has been the site of three fatal crashes in the past month. On Dec. 28, 65-year-old Vernon Black and 59-year-old Rachel Black, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, were killed when they pulled out of Kershaw and into the path of a truck traveling on Highway 140. On Jan. 2, hours after ODOT officials met to discuss the intersection, a motorcyclist was struck along Highway 140 when an SUV turning left onto Kershaw Road failed to yield. A 21-year-old Eagle Point High graduate, Hunter Hoeptner, was also killed in May 2017 while riding his motorcycle through the intersection. In the most recent crash, a 7-year-old girl was killed Monday night near the Highway 140-Lakeview Drive intersection, about a mile west of Kershaw. Three others in the car she was riding in were injured. Leaming said Monday’s crash was not due to road-related issues, but the accident provided an important reminder to slow down and pay closer attention while driving. Police said driver inattention was believed to be the cause of the accident, in which a pickup truck traveling at highway speeds rammed into the back of a smaller passenger car that had stopped to turn. Leaming said crash statistics at the Lakeview Drive intersection show nine accidents in the past decade, mostly during daytime hours, with no previous fatalities. “It’s not always the road. People are quick to blame the highway, but people need to slow down and be more careful. Not every intersection has a turn lane,” Leaming said, noting that driver education is crucial. “How many drivers out there really know what the rules are for the road?" he asked. "So many people have taken a driver’s test when they were 16 and that was it. One of the most hazardous things you’ll do, day by day by day, is getting behind the wheel of a car or riding in a car.” — Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. Email her at [email protected].