Starting Oct. 1, drivers with RVs, towing trailers or weighing more than 10,000 pounds will need to self-certify or risk being cited and fined on one of the country’s steepest mountain highways.
Teton Pass tests “even the most experienced drivers,” one video from the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) warns.
The online program aims to educate drivers about using low gear, how to bail into a cable net system and checking a vehicle before departure. The move followed three fatalities and a dozen injuries over three crashes within the same mile stretch of the road this summer.
WYDOT asks drivers to self-certify starting now to get ahead of the restrictions. The online certificates are valid for one year.
The increasingly busy 4,000-foot-high route is the most popular link between jobs in Jackson Hole and communities with more affordable housing. That opens up driving to more user error.
“There are 8,000 cars a day that go over that pass,” WYDOT Director Darin Westby told KHOL earlier this month. “Statistically speaking, it’s a relatively safe pass. Unfortunately, we’ve just seen some driver behavior that isn’t conducive to safe driving.”
Local law enforcement and Wyoming Highway Patrol will check whether drivers are certified, though such retroactive inspections may be limited.
While WYDOT is optimistic, others don’t think the program goes far enough.
“You can’t just expect a paper to be the only thing to fix. You can’t put a band-aid over it,” said Avilene De Luna, the widow of the passenger killed in the latest crash.
She wants to see the road widened and more signs advertising the runaway truck ramps added.
The state transportation agency said it is also reviewing the dozens of signs on the pass.
“Beyond the potential citations and fines, drivers who do not take the educational materials seriously could be putting themselves and others at risk through brake failure or other serious hazards,” the department said in a Monday press release.
