Highway 212 Action Group Holds Meeting In Broadus

A meeting in Broadus to give updates on the US 212 Corridor Safety Action Plan was held last Thursday at the VFW in Broadus.

The goal of the meeting was to inform the public on the process and timeline of the project, which has an ultimate goal for reducing deaths and crashes along the Hwy 212 corridor – from Crow Agency to the Wyoming state line southeast of Alzada.

The project began in the winter of 2023, featuring a task force including members from the counties along the route, as well as state, tribal, and other associated groups. In the spring of this year public meetings were held in southeast MT, including a meeting in Broadus in February. Of the many comments received at the meetings, the meeting in Lame Deer reportedly found that a truck had taken the stop sign right off the side of a school bus which had been at a bus stop.

Through those meetings, a series of recommendations and priorities were collected. The next portion of the process will be making short range recommendations, and securing funding through the Federal Infrastructure Plan for larger, longer term projects.

Those plans fall into several broad categories – policy and process, education/driver behavior, engineering/ infrastructure, and enforcement/post-accident response.

The policy and process portion of the plan involves recommendations that could potentially be the quickest to implement, several of which include coordination of cross-jurisdictional enforcement agreements, and contacting Google to correct the speed limit on Google Maps, which is used by many in the trucking industry or by tourists. Some vehicle navigation systems show the speed limit as 70 mph, despite the 65 mph speed zone which began in 2019.

The education/driver behavior side of the plan had suggestions such as installing cameras on school buses to document violations.

Engineering/Infrastructure was the next part of the plan, and is likely to be the most expensive and portion of the plan which could take the longest to implement, according to Shane Mintz, Glendive District Administrator for the Montana Department of Transportation, who was present at the meeting. Funding, planning, bidding, environmental and land easement issues are but a portion of the factors needed to be completed before construction could be completed on any major road projects.

What those construction projects could look like include construction of turn lanes at major intersections, widening shoulders of the portions of the road which are still narrow, and construction of passing lanes. Smaller projects which could be implemented more quickly include additional rumble strips and additional speed limit signs or flashing speed limit signs.

When it comes to enforcement of the roadways, one member of the task force had some direct insight into the matter. Jeff Kent is the Montana Highway Patrol Captain for District 5, which covers the eastern 15 counties in the state, from the Montana border to Wyoming. Kent was present at the meeting, where we learned that out of the 27 highway patrolman positions in the district, only 14 are currently filled. That dearth of enforcement makes for a lot of unpatrolled road. Kent mentioned that one way they are looking to combat the lack of officers is by doing monthly saturation patrols, where a number of officers will converge on one roadway to enforce speeding restrictions.

Those looking to have their voices heard on the project may still do so at the following site: https://inputcentral.com/safeus212. The site also shows the draft plan in its entirety.

One of the individuals present at the meeting was Mary King, for which enhancement of safety on Highway 212 holds a special purpose. In November of 2023, Mary's husband, Bighorn County Sheriff Darrell King, passed away in a vehicle accident near Crow Agency, on Highway 212. Her presence at this and other Highway 212 Safety Action Plan meetings served as a reminder of why improved safety along 212 benefits our entire collective community in Southeast Montana.