Spoke with Pat Downing at the Sheriff’s office and he stated the deputy on the scene confirmed signs denoting high water typically used in and around the county for trouble spots were not in use when Dean Caudle, 88, drowned trying to drive through 4′ of moving water on Arago Fishtrap Road. The County has several areas with permanent signs in place that can be flipped when conditions are dangerous for motorists. Additionally, barriers are setup closing the road to motorists until water subsides enough to be safe.

Normally the sign shop employees are responsible for flipping the signs and placing barriers in trouble spots. The sign shop was fully staffed on Monday, the 16th when Caudle drowned although Cindy Moody left for Kelso, Washington Tuesday and was gone Wednesday with foreman Barry Austen to sell a piece of equipment.

Yesterday I sent an email to Kevin requesting information regarding the lack of barriers on Arago Fishtrap Road on Monday.

As you may know Dean Caudle, 88 of Coquille died Monday when he
attempted to drive through 4′ of water on Arago Fishtrap Road. Reportedly, warning signs normally placed or rotated by the road department had not been deployed. Does the reorganization of the road
department have anything to do with the department failing to alert the driving public the road was not safe?

Please comment,

This morning I received this reply

Absolutely not. The employee that does signage has not had any changes in her duties.

So I followed up with this question

Thank you, Kevin. Will you explain why the signs were not deployed properly when Caudle died?

Then I received this quick response

I have request into staff to see if the road department was notified of high waters.

Finally I asked these questions

Given that flooding on this road is normal during this season and especially when raining, hence the placement of permanent signs, who would be responsible for notifying the road department of high water? Are you saying the public is responsible? Please explain.

So far I have had no response. In speaking with Larry Van Elsberg I understand that the Road Department had a list of roads that are known to flood and usually a crew during storm season or during a heavy rain working in an area would alert the sign shop or flip the signs and place barriers closing dangerous sections of road.

On Monday three members of the remaining road crew were working on Lee Valley Road. Four crew members were placing a culvert at Stump Hollow and two more were working well away from Arago Fishtrap Road. This would leave only Cindy Moody from the sign shop and one other road crew member free to set barriers unless management took on the task, technically a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

There is no explanation so far as to why the barriers were not in place and the lack of them may have contributed to the drowning death of Dean Caudle.