05:50 PM PDT on Tuesday, April 18, 2006

By JANE McCARTHY / KING 5 News

MONROE, Wash. – Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser has placed crosses at dozens of crash sites along Highway 2. He hopes that the crosses will prompt others to think about the victims and their families.

KING

One cross is for Dick Montgomery, a father who adopted and fostered 13 children while raising four of his own.

Just down the road are crosses for Robert Moore and his wife Donna Jo, who was Walser's secretary.

There are many more.

Since 1999, 40 people have died on the stretch of Highway 2 between Snohomish and Skykomish. It's a statistic people who live there know too well.

But despite the highway's poor track record, Highway 2 has been largely overlooked when it comes to improvement funds.

That's why Walser is hoping that more citizens will support his "US2 Safety Coalition." He wants to see the two-lane road eventually become a four-lane, divided highway.

Tuesday night, the coalition hopes to spark that support with a public safety summit at Sultan Middle School. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. with a very special ceremony - a vigil - to remember those lives lost on US2. The meeting is expected to last about 3 hours.