GREAT FALLS — The state Transportation Department is in the middle of a five-year project to install center line rumble strips on two-lane highways in an effort to decrease the number of head-on crashes caused by distracted driving.
This year’s work is adding rumble strips to 820 miles of roads in the department’s Great Falls district, including highways between Havre and Browning, between Great Falls and Havre and Montana Highway 200 from Sun River to the junction with Montana Highway 83. Other work is being done in the Fairfield, Belt and Neihart areas.
The Montana Highway Patrol says about 12 percent of the traffic deaths in Montana are due to motorists drifting across the center line. Traffic and safety engineer Roy Peterson tells the Great Falls Tribune rumble strips are a low-cost way to save lives.