The squeaky wheel deserves the grease

I should be dead about 10 times over. Here are just a few examples:

? 1989 — Innocently agreeing to pick up a coworker at his home in East Detroit, not knowing that home was a crack house. Aggravating factor: I was wearing a turtleneck.

? 1992 — Bombing down a long, steep hill in Billings, Mont., on my bicycle and watching in horror as a motorist pulled out in front of me from a side street without looking. I had no choice but to lay down the bike at 30 miles an hour. Mitigating factor: I was wearing a helmet.

? 2004 — Deciding to take a hike during some downtime on a salmon fishing trip on Alaska's Alagnak River, then remembering I was smack-dab in the middle of grizzly bear country without any means of protecting myself. Immediately after turning around, I encountered a grizzly on its haunches, about 15 feet from me. Mitigating factors: I didn't run or soil myself. Aggravating factor: basic stupidity.

This is only a partial list. There are a number of other instances where I nearly paid the ultimate price.

I am reminded of these instances each time I strap into my pickup truck and point it down U.S. Highway 95. I have never been behind the wheel during a violent car crash (knock wood) so I feel the odds are not really in my favor on U.S. 95.

Highway 95 seems more like a sometimes-dormant breeder of deadly collisions than a rural highway. Hundreds and hundreds of people have already lost their lives on Highway 95 and this gloomy trend will not slacken until safety improvements are made.

The Garwood-to-Sagle project is a good start at dealing with the problem, but it's years off from being actually done. Moreover, it's slated to be done after the controversial bypass is built, a project that's languished for decades.

There's a subtly negative connotation to the cliche about the squeaky wheel getting the grease, particularly when it involves government. But in the case of U.S. 95, the wheel squeaks because it desperately needs grease.

? Keith Kinnaird is a reporter for The Daily Bee.