Motorists need signs to protect them from “Darwin Tree” on Highway 101

To the editor:

ODOT has long refused to acknowledge and remedy a dangerous U.S. Highway 101 road hazard just south of Seal Rock, a few miles north of me, seeming to view that hazard not as a cause for concern but rather as an opportunity for cynical humor called “Darwin’s tree.”

The hazard is a long, sweeping, unmarked curve, speed limit 55 mph, dangerous in both directions but particularly so as you drive north onto its blind downhill section.

In 2020, I emailed ODOT about this hazard: “Highway 101 Mile 152 road hazard, south of Seal Rock: A few days ago, I saw on the Lincoln County online news site a brief report of a single car fatal accident, a vehicle went off the road and struck a tree, one dead. Without knowing more, I guessed where it was, a curve coming off a straight-away where northbound drivers probably going 60 mph or more could easily lose control and go off the road if they weren’t paying attention. The large tree this vehicle struck has been mangled before by the same sort of accident. It’s not a sharp curve, that’s actually one of the dangers, the driver may not realize the situation until too late. There needs to be a curve marker south of the curve, and a “Slow To ?? mph” — whatever speed you think might be necessary.  Some warning needs to be installed, or more lives will be lost on that curve.  Thank you.”

An ODOT traffic safety engineer responded by saying: (a) drivers only pay attention to extreme postings, like 25 mph warnings; (b) drivers disregard advisory speeds where the geometry looks safe;  (c) ODOT field data show the milepost 152 curve is adequate for speeds of 60-65 mph; (d) ODOT’s most recent five-year data show an average of only two crashes a year at that location, not a level that requires “additional signing;” (e) Most crashes at that location have been “property damage” only.

No warning signs were subsequently installed, and in 2021, after I learned of another crash at the same location, I again emailed ODOT: “[T]his is a dangerous curve for which a roadway warning needs to be installed.” I didn’t receive a response.

There things stood, probably with additional crashes I didn’t know about, until my birding friend Michael Noack and I recently encountered an ODOT Incident Response truck at Seal Rock parked next to a flat bed tow truck on which sat the most mangled car we had ever seen.

Michael asked the ODOT guy where the wreck came from, and he said “152,” then added, “the Darwin tree.”

Of course I knew the reference — the Darwin Awards, earned by those whose deaths were caused by their own stupidity. I also knew which tree the ODOT guy was referring to. You see it driving north, its bark ripped off where vehicles have run off the curve and smashed into it. Michael told the ODOT guy there should be warning signs, and the ODOT guy said there had been signs but that people kept running over them. I’ve lived here four years, and Michael much longer, and we’ve never seen a warning sign.

Regardless of ODOT’s refusal to acknowledge and address the milepost 152 hazard with appropriate signs, needed both north and south, and regardless of what ODOT’s records may say, the Darwin tree speaks loudly not of the stupidity of those who have lost their encounter with it but rather of the ineptitude of those in authority who have allowed this remediable hazard to continue unabated. When you have a specific location of repeated vehicle crashes so infamous that you jokingly name a tree in its honor, you have a problem you need to correct. As my friend Michael said, “How difficult is it to install life saving signs? ”

And no, cutting down the Darwin tree is not the solution. That old warrior has already suffered enough at ODOT’s hands.

— Jon French, Waldport/Bayshore