Over the past five years, paramedics and police have responded to more than a dozen fatal crashes that left 16 people dead on Hwy. 12 in the west metro. They're hoping they won't be called to another one for the next 12 months.
On Monday, members of the Highway 12 Safety Coalition issued a challenge to drivers: No fatal crashes on a 38-mile stretch of Hwy 12 that officials call the most dangerous in the metro area.
The section that runs from Wayzata in western Hennepin County all the way through Wright County has the highest crash rate in the metro when compared to similar two-lane highways, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS).
"There have been too many lives lost to this dangerous highway," said Chief Gary Kroells of the West Hennepin Public Safety in announcing the "Going 12 for Highway 12" challenge. "This is everybody's problem. We are tired of these lives being lost."
The coalition formed in July 2014 has been pushing for improved safety along the corridor whic t has seen a high number of crashes involving vehicles crossing the center line in recent years.
Over the past year, the coalition has helped bring attention to the issue and some solutions, too. Last December, its efforts resulted in a Rogers, Minn., firm installing center rumble strips from County Road 6 to the Maple Plain border and west of Maple Plain to County Line Road, which serves as the border between Delano and Independence. The company, Diamond Surface, Inc., did the work for free.
It's also been behind an audit to identify problem areas and other improvements planned for 2016.
Still, people have died. In August, Chelsea Langhans was driving eastbound on Hwy. 12, headed to a Saturday yoga class, when a westbound driver came across the centerline and hit her head-on near Wayzata. She was killed instantly at age 25.
