Preston County’s leadership pointed in right direction to resolve dangerous conditions

Preston County is no longer in a state of denial.
Indeed, it is in a state of emergency.
On April 19, the Preston County Commission declared a countywide state of emergency due to its dangerous roads.
According to commissioners, their efforts to work with the state Division of Highways (DOH) to improve Preston’s roads for eight years have come to naught.
Recently, after being informed by the local DOH office that placing warning signs along roads would require district approval, the commissioners threw up their hands.
No, not in surrender to the powers that be or simply accepting the status quo of its hazardous roads.
Rather, in frustration, and declared this state of emergency, which comes on the heels of its call for a summit on roads by counties in DOH’s District 4.
On Monday, commissioners from five of the six counties comprising District 4 will meet in Kingwood about what can be done about this region’s road conditions. Commissioners from each of these counties can certainly all share horror stories about their own roads, too.
Though Preston County does not have a monopoly on dangerous roads, it has cornered the most dynamic response to them lately.
By calling this meeting of counties in District 4 and declaring a state of emergency, its deeds speak a lot louder than the words of others.
For the record, the Preston County Commission’s assessment of even its main thoroughfares’ condition, never mind its secondary roads, is accurate — they are dangerous and pose a threat to public safety.
As one commissioner said, this declaration of a state of emergency for road conditions is as fitting as those called for weather conditions.
It’s true that many accidents on our roads are not really accidents, at all. Drivers are drunk, driving recklessly, ignoring traffic laws or conditions and so on.
But when the state directly contributes to traffic accidents by benign neglect — for eight years — that is a willful act of its liability.
Regardless of the consequences or effects of these roads, the state’s response suggests it is not even acting in good faith to ensure public safety.
Neither we nor the Preston County Commission intends this perspective or advocacy to be a personal attack on local DOH employees or officials.
But the reality is, commuters, first responders, school bus drivers, commercial drivers and everyone else is forced to take the condition of these roads personally.
Personally in the sense if the roads are not damaging their vehicles, they put drivers and passengers on them at serious risk.
No one should accept driving on roads that are not simply in bad shape, but altogether unsafe.