19 November 2019 — 1231 mst
Kalispell’s Three Mile Drive overpass was not
designed to maximize pedestrian safety
Updated. Yesterday, a 50-year-old man was found dead on Kalispell’s westside bypass underneath the Three Mile Drive overpass. Whether his death was an accident is under investigation.
Update 1. According to a post on Flathead 411 Event’s Facebook page, the death was a suicide.
Update 2. Both the Daily Interlake and the Flathead Beacon have published stories about Jerad Avery, the counselor at Glacier High School who died, how Kalispell’s public school system is handling the situation, and funeral arrangements.
I know that overpass well. It’s on one of my regular walking routes, just a mile from my home. Although the overpass is equipped with sidewalks and a tall fence directly over the bypass, at the ends of the fence there are steep drops and limited or no protection.
In 2016 and 2017 I posted photographs of the unprotected areas, which I called pedestrian jumps. Here’s a photograph from 2017:
The overpass at Four Mile has a similar level of protection against pedestrian falls.
Adding protection to these overpasses would not be prohibitively expensive. I recommend that Kalispell's city council and administrators take a field trip to these bypasses, and then start doing what’s necessary to make them safer for pedestrians.