This is a guest post by Thomas Daly, CSP.

In 2018 NDOT contracted with the traffic engineering consulting firm Kimberly/Horn to conduct a ‘Road Safety Assessment’ of Mt. Rose Highway.   Their 39-page report with appendices was issued in August 2018 with more than 50 ‘suggestions’ for road safety improvements.

ON December 5, 2018 NDOT made a presentation to area residents to discuss the study, see summary of issues at this link…

While Mt. Rose Highway is a state road, and thus NDOT’s responsibility, virtually all of the intersecting roads and streets are COUNTY owned.  So, solutions to the increasing traffic, multiple fatality/injury accidents, pedestrian safety and property damage accidents are a dual responsibility.

So, of the 50 or so traffic safety improvements suggested, what number of those have been completed in the ensuing two years?  You guessed it…none.

But the carnage continues.  A three-fatality traffic accident occurred at Thomas Creek Road and Mt. Rose Highway on November 10, 2018.  Another two-vehicle accident resulting in two fatalities occurred last year at the intersection of Callahan Road and Mt. Rose Highway and another fatal accident occurred this year higher up on one of Mt. Rose Highway’s infamous hair-pin turns. 

Mt. Rose Highway should be re-named the ‘Highway of Death’. 

NDOT was requested on October 27, 2020 to brief the Washoe County Commission at an upcoming Commission meeting on this subject but no date for the briefing was specified, so do not look for it until next year. 

Traffic safety does not seem to be a priority of NDOT nor our County Commissioners.

Drive safely.

Thomas G. Daly is a Mt. Rose Highway corridor resident and a former Washoe County Planning Commissioner.