CAMAS — City of Washougal and Port of Camas-Washougal leaders say the fatal crash last week near the Camas Slough Bridge highlights the need to upgrade the narrow Highway 14 crossing connecting Camas and Washougal.
“The accident was really bad,” Port Commissioner Larry Keister said at a Washougal City Council workshop. “One person lost their life, and seven cars (were involved). Does that give the city of Washougal, the port, and the city of Camas an opportunity to get this discussion back on the table? That’s what I’m looking at. We have this door that’s open. Let’s jump through.”
Washougal’s Willard D. Strickland, 68, died and two others were hospitalized Aug. 22 following the seven-vehicle crash.
According to Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn, Strickland was caught in stopped traffic near the bridge after a trailer carrying a manufactured home got stuck between the bridge’s railings, stopping all westbound traffic.
According to the State Patrol, Strickland made an improper U-turn across the highway in his 1995 Buick Century to escape the traffic jam. He hit an eastbound commercial-grade International CV515 truck driven by Joshua I. Caldwell, 39, also of Washougal, before being pushed back into the stopped westbound vehicles.
Caldwell and Carson resident Brandy R. Demchuck, 34, were injured.
Washougal City Councilman Ernie Suggs said Monday the fatal crash highlights the need for a bridge replacement.
“If that bridge was wide like it was supposed to be, that little home would not have gotten stuck there, and there wouldn’t have been an accident. It wouldn’t have happened,” Suggs said.
“It’s another way to say that we’ve been working on this for way too long. We all go up to Olympia, we go to Washington, D.C., and we talk about it every time,” Washougal Mayor David Stuebe said. “We’re continuing to grow, and more and more negative situations are going to happen unless we take care of this. It’s time.”
The Legislature provided funding for widening the bridge as part of the 2015 Connecting Washington transportation package, but cities including Camas and Washougal requested that funding be shifted to widening Highway 14 between Interstate 205 and Southeast 164th Avenue, a stretch that frequently saw long traffic backups and serious crashes. That work is in progress.
“Our communities are getting bigger,” Keister said. “How do we manage that growth without starting with our infrastructure? The No. 1 thing with our infrastructure right now should be that slough bridge.”
The Washington Department of Transportation has proposed a $65 million project to widen the slough bridge.
The project sits at the top of the Clark County Transportation Alliance 2024 Policy Statement’s Catalytic Regional Projects and Needs list, which includes projects that reduce congestion hotspots, improve safety and deliver multimodal investments.
