Officials call for bridge widening after fatal crash

City of Washougal and Port of Camas-Washougal leaders say a recent fatal accident near the Camas Slough Bridge highlights the need to upgrade the narrow Highway 14 bridge connecting the Camas-Washougal communities.

A Washougal man, Willard D. Strickland, 68, died and two others were hospitalized Thursday, Aug. 22, following a seven-vehicle crash near the Slough Bridge.

According to Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn, Strickland was stuck in stopped traffic near the bridge after a trailer carrying a manufactured home became lodged on the bridge around noon, stopping all westbound traffic.

According to WSP and The Post-Record’s sister paper, The Columbian, Strickland “made an improper U-turn across the highway” in his 1995 Buick Century to escape the traffic jam, but hit an eastbound 2023 commercial-grade International CV515 truck driven by Joshua I. Caldwell, 39, also of Washougal, before being pushed back into the stopped westbound vehicles.

Two other drivers — Caldwell and Carson resident Brandy R. Demchuck, 34, who was driving one of the westbound vehicles struck by Strickland’s Buick — were injured in the crash and transported to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center for treatment.

The Columbian reported that all of the drivers involved in the crash were wearing safety belts, and that workers cleared the manufactured home from the bridge around 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

“The accident was really bad,” Port Commissioner Larry Keister said Aug. 26, during a Washougal City Council workshop. “One person lost their life, and seven cars (were involved). Does that give the city of Washougal, the Port, and the city of Camas an opportunity to get this discussion back on the table? That’s what I’m looking at. We have this door that’s open. Let’s jump through.”

Washougal City Councilman Ernie Suggs said he thought the fatal crash highlighted the needd for a bridge replacement.

“If that bridge was wide like it was supposed to be, that little home would not have gotten stuck there, and there wouldn’t have been an accident. It wouldn’t have happened,” Suggs said. “It would really benefit us to get that bridge done.”

“It’s kind of a tragic opportunity,” said Washougal Mayor David Stuebe. “It’s another way to say that we’ve been working on this for way too long. We all go up to Olympia, we go to Washington, D.C., and we talk about (the Camas Slough Bridge) every time. We’re continuing to grow, and more and more negative situations are going to happen unless we take care of this. It’s time.”

The Washington Legislature provided funding for widening the bridge as part of the 2015 “Connecting Washington” Transportation Package, but some cities, including Camas and Washougal, requested that the funding for the slough bridge widening be shifted to a highway widening project on Highway 14 between Interstate 205 and Southeast 164th Avenue.

“Our communities are getting bigger,” Keister said. “How do we manage that growth without starting with our infrastructure? The number one thing with our infrastructure right now should be that slough bridge.”

The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has proposed a $65 million project to widen the slough bridge. The project sits at the top of the Clark County Transportation Alliance 2024 Policy Statement’s Catalytic Regional Projects and Needs list, which includes projects that reduce congestion hotspots, improve safety and deliver multimodal investments.