Highway 93 near Arlee seeing multiple fatal accidents

ARLEE – It is the most common way to go anyplace in Montana — you hop in your automobile and drive. But it can also be unsafe.

There have been 241 fatal crashes in Montana in 2021. That variety dropped in 2022 to 198, according to the Montana Freeway Patrol.

MTN Information

Nearer to dwelling, the Missoula District stories that fatalities on U.S. Highway 93 rose from 8 to 13 from 2021 to 2022. One particular location on your own in that district experienced five of those fatalities in the previous year.

Reporter Emily Brown visited Arlee to look into why this location is a lot more inclined to fatal crashes. A 5-mile portion of U.S. Freeway 93 around Arlee has found five fatal crashes in underneath a calendar year.

“I’ve extricated a lot more, additional deceased persons than I have individuals that I can get out of a vehicle and survive,” Arlee Volunteer Hearth Department Main Charles Headley advised MTN Information. “Four past year, just one this yr being fatalities is horrible quantities. And it’s, it is the amount of money of significant-speed crashes that we have.”

Emily Brown/MTN Information

The speed restrict on various sections of U.S. Highway 93 is 70 mph. But extremely quickly it drops to 55 mph and then 35 mph. Dashing is a main challenge in the center of Arlee and is also a challenge in two other places.

“The area of highway which is variety of…a concerning challenge for us…the pretty starting following you appear down the hill, Highway 93, occur down from the on line casino,” Headley stated. “There’s a corner termed “Dirty Corner” … that is a substantial piece of wherever it just can make a slight turn, but if you are heading also rapid or you’re not paying awareness — or you have the slightest distraction, that is in which a lot of my crashes occur.”

“And then the up coming piece when you get by means of city, the upcoming detail that opens up, “Shaul Flats” is your 1st straight away and that’s where by when men and women are intoxicated that very first straight away when they strike that straight away which is that, ‘oh effectively I’m great, I can maintain heading, I can strike the gas’. Very well, that is what gets them normally is correct there,” Headley continued.

Emily Brown/MTN Information

In 2022, a two-automobile lethal incident happened at “Dirty Corner” and then just a handful of days later on a different two-auto fatality took spot at “Shaul Flats”. Headley additional that on March 31, “We experienced an additional fatality. 22-12 months-aged female [walking] alongside the freeway who was hit and killed.

These modern deadly crashes transpired in between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., and most victims have been underneath 30.

“Just know that this is just one of the deadliest highways out there and be mindful of that when you get on it,” Headley advised.

Driving is something we do all the time and Main Headley’s terms serve as a reminder to be safer on the roads.