BROOKINGS Improving road safety and increasing motorist awareness in the wake of a deadly Oct.19 crash were the focus of Tuesday mornings Brookings County Commission meeting.
The crash, which involved two vehicles, killed 48-year-old Sixta Erika Huerta Garcia of Brookings. It occurred at the intersection of state Highway 30 and 471st Avenue 6 miles north of Brookings.
That intersection along with 466th Avenues intersection with U.S. Highway 14 between Brookings and Volga, also known as county Road 7 and the Bruce Road was at the heart of a discussion centering on rumble strips, lighted stop signs and more.
Commissioner Dave Miller noted his experiences at the site of the deadly Oct. 19 crash.
I travel that intersection Highway 30 there every day and, boy, I see a lot of people blowing through there, almost always from the east, he said. We really need to do something there.
Highway Superintendent Brian Gustad said he visited with South Dakota Department of Transportation representative Matt Brey about installing transverse rumble strips, noting that the DOT has a machine to do that at both of the troublesome intersections.
Gustad said Brey wasnt aware if the DOT would charge the county, and Gustad hadnt heard from the DOT.
It sounds like something the DOT would provide a service, and they are also agreeing to put a lighted stop sign on their side of that intersection, Gustad said, referring to Highway 30.
Jurisdiction-wise, its a bit of a complicated intersection. On the east side, its the aforementioned Highway 30. On the west side, it becomes county Road 6 and is also known as 204th Street. The north-south road is 471st Avenue and is also known as county Road 77.
Gustad said the state already has rumble strips on its side of that intersection. From examining other intersections that already have transverse rumble strips, he said theyre usually placed around 500 feet before the stop ahead signs on those roads.
At the intersection of the fatal crash, Gustad hopes trees will lessen the noise produced by any newly installed rumble strips it was a concern raised some of the people living near the intersection of which there are two types: loud and quieter.
The loud rumble strips could be installed this year, Gustad said, while the quieter ones could be installed sometime next year. The difference between the two is basically the type of grooves cut into the road ones shallower than the other.
He said the overall goal is to hopefully make that intersection safer.
County commissioners signed on to the plan whilst asking further questions and offering comments.
Do we have a methodology to identify other intersections that we should probably be looking at this on instead of waiting for a tragic accident? Commissioner Doug Post asked.
Typically, and maybe the sheriff can chime in on this, but we do look a lot at our accident history, from my understanding, Gustad said.
Sheriff Marty Stanwick said Gustad was correct. What we did last year (is) we went around and identified stop signs and we put the twirlies on a lot of them the ones that we felt had some issues, like the four-way stop near Bruce and so forth.
Post said his observance stemmed from an accident he was involved in a few years ago that happened just south of Bowes Construction where the other driver did a stop-and-go, not realizing it wasnt a four-way stop.
By the time I got something else to drive, that intersection was already upgraded, he said. That one could have been really bad. My air bags were able to save me on that one. Its just one of those things, if we can preemptively do some of these things that would probably better than being reactive.
Stanwick said a lot of whats done is based on statistics and complaints, adding that he was glad Commissioner Kelly VanderWal earlier brought attention to the 466th Avenue/US 14 intersection as well.
In closing, VanderWal perhaps best summed up the situation.
I agree we just need to spend some dollars on both those two intersections, he said. Id just like to ask the public to just slow down. Rumble strips and flashing stop signs arent going to fix everything but, again, we just want to ask the general public to stop and pay attention at all intersections.
In other business on Tuesday, commissioners:
- Gave the green light on a 5-0 vote to amend transmission pipeline rules in the county. The changes which require pipelines to adhere to the same setback requirements as concentrated animal feeding operations were hammered out by members of the CO2 Pipeline Advisory Committee over a period of months. The issue came up after Summit Carbon Solutions proposed a CO2 pipeline whose route path included Brookings County, but the project never came to fruition.
- Learned from Joe Salvati, the director of the Brookings County Outdoor Adventure Center, that the facility has had a successful year so far, with total attendance at 15,513. Thats an increase of 4% from this time in 2024.
- Approved, all on 5-0 votes, a variety of alcohol-related agreements with businesses, most of which were simply renewals for the coming year.
- On voice votes, agreed to inmate housing contracts at the Brookings County Detention Center with Kingsbury, Moody and Hamlin counties.
- Approved a detention center food service contract, on a 5-0 vote, with Correct Choice Inc.
- Agreed to donate $1,000 to the Christmas, Kids and Cops program on a 5-0 vote.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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