By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
The impact of fast-moving, heavy truck traffic has prompted citizens and government officials to take action.
The Energized for Safety Coalition, a non-profit organization that educates the public about road safety, has partnered with the Oklahoma Department of Public Transportation, law enforcement and energy companies to designate State Highway 33 a safety corridor or zone. The area will stretch west of Kingfisher to Watonga. Other improvements include Cashion to Kingfisher and some along SH-81 north of Okarche.
Increased state highway patrol and law enforcement will strictly enforce speed limit laws with no tolerance for speeding or distracted driving.
Tom Robbins, president of the coalition, said the designation was the result of public concern.
“We know that it’s a concern to the community,” Robbins said. “I’ve had the opportunity to communicate with city leaders, in particular Andrea Magness at Okarche High School and Max Thomas at the Chisholm Trail Technology Center, law enforcement. They brought up the idea of a safety corridor. We want to address concerns instead of accidents.”
Okarche High School students took a driver safety course provided by the coalition that focused on how to drive safely with oil and gas trucks on the road. Other schools are following suit including Canadian Valley Technology Center. The coalition worked to bring out energy company trucks for students to study and ask questions about how they operate on the road and paid for a game simulation to teach the students driver safety.
Energy companies play a role in the coalition’s ability to bring education to students. EnLink Midstream is an energy company that has supported the corridor and Robbins said it’s not uncommon for oil and gas companies to support the mission of the coalition.
“EnLink is building a gas plant over the Kingfisher County, Blaine County line and they indicated they wanted to make sure they were addressing traffic and safety concerns,” Robbins said.
EnLink spokeswoman Tiffany Moss said the company is a good community partner.
“The Energize for Safety Coalition is another example of EnLink’s support of our communities,” Moss said in a prepared statement. “The coalition brings together state agencies, community organizations, public safety officials, and the oil and gas industry with the common goal of promoting traffic safety, so being a part of the Coalition is a natural fit for us. In addition to the highway safety corridors, the Coalition connected EnLink’s Oklahoma team with ODOT representatives to identify traffic safety signs that would help make drivers more aware of trucks entering and exiting our new gas processing facility, located off Highway 3 in Blaine County. We expect the new signs to be installed by the end of the year.”
The safety corridor was announced Nov. 27 during a meeting with state officials. In attendance at the meeting included Sen. Mike Sanders (R-Okarche), Sen. Darcy Jech (R-Kingfisher), Secretary of Safety and Security Dusty Rhoades, Secretary of Transportation Mike Patterson, Secretary of Energy and Environment Michael Teague, EnLink Midstream, Devon Energy, the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association, and representatives from ODOT, OHP, the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety and several others.
