{"id":91581,"date":"2018-10-31T13:29:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T20:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=91581"},"modified":"2018-10-31T13:29:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T20:29:04","slug":"snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington State Snoqualmie Casino Employee Highway Deaths Spur $1 Million Donation for Road Upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Snoqualimie Casino — located north of Seattle in Washington State — is offering $1 million in funding to help kick-start safety upgrades on a nearby highway where several employees tragically lost their lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Accidents like this one on Washington State’s Highway 18 will hopefully become less frequent with road improvements. In a different crash, Snoqualimie Casino recently lost two employees on the treacherous roadway. (Image: Oregonlive.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The decision to take action came after two casino employees were killed in a crash while traveling to work along the Tiger Mountain Summit on Highway 18. The victims of the October 12\u00a0head-on crash have been identified as Maria Wong and her daughter, Jasmine Lao.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wong was a slot attendant with a decade of experience, while her daughter became a casino security guard in 2016. Both had been previously recognized as Snoqualimie employees of the month. A police investigation revealed that a truck driver crossed the center line and struck their car head on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were the sweetest but also the most hard-working people,\u201d casino CEO Brian Decorah — who is now taking steps to end the carnage on that particular stretch of road — told The Seattle Times.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Sense of Urgency<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The casino wants to see its million bucks go towards significant safety enhancements, but there\u2019s a catch: it must be put to use immediately.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), Decorah wrote that if the state wants to take the casino up on its offer, it needs to do so within 90 days.<\/p>\n

We have 450 team members that travel this stretch of road, every day,” <\/span><\/strong>the CEO told Seattle’s KOMO TV News. <\/span>“Each day without action is another day that we wait to hear news of another tragedy. We don\u2019t want to wait.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The state was already planning to launch a study on how to best upgrade the highway, but the $1 million in necessary government funding won\u2019t be made available until next July.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s far too late for the casino, which also\u00a0lost an employee to a crash last December, in addition to another in 2014.<\/p>\n

No Easy Answers<\/b><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s more than just a publicity push for Snoqualmie, which had a bout of negative press when it made the decision to pocket a bad beat jackpot<\/a> after closing its poker room earlier this year. Management hopes to see an end to the carnage.<\/p>\n

Over the last 10 months, there\u2019s been a fatality on the highway once every 43 days on average, but finding the funding is merely the first step in solving a complicated problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no simple \u2014 or low-cost \u2014 solutions to improving,\u201d WSDOT wrote in a blog post. \u201cAt first glance, installing a center barrier seems like a straightforward and inexpensive solution. But there\u2019s actually much more to it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The highway would need to be widened to make room for a barrier. However, there are a litany of issues with that, including several unstable land banks and the fact that much of the area would have to be completely excavated first, leaving the highway unpassable for the duration.<\/p>\n

WSDOT says it\u2019s working with casino officials to see how their cash offer could best be put to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snoqualimie Casino — located north of Seattle in Washington State — is offering $1 million in funding to help kick-start safety upgrades on a nearby highway where several employees tragically lost their lives. The decision to take action came after two casino employees were killed in a crash while traveling to work along the Tiger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":91611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSnoqualmie Casino Employee Highway Deaths Spur $1M Donation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Snoqualimie Casino officials are offering up $1 million dollars to help expedite a safety study on nearby Highway 18 after two of its employees were recently killed in a head-on collision.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snoqualmie Casino Employee Highway Deaths Spur $1M Donation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Snoqualimie Casino officials are offering up $1 million dollars to help expedite a safety study on nearby Highway 18 after two of its employees were recently killed in a head-on collision.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-31T20:29:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Highway-18-Washington-State.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"338\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cort Smith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cort Smith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/\",\"name\":\"Snoqualmie Casino Employee Highway Deaths Spur $1M Donation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Highway-18-Washington-State.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-31T20:29:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-31T20:29:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/20db7dec4c6b349b19992217f9a7df7d\"},\"description\":\"Snoqualimie Casino officials are offering up $1 million dollars to help expedite a safety study on nearby Highway 18 after two of its employees were recently killed in a head-on collision.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/snoqualmie-casino-employee-highway-deaths-spur-1m-donation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Highway-18-Washington-State.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Highway-18-Washington-State.jpeg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":338,\"caption\":\"Accidents like this one on Washington State's Highway 18 will hopefully become less frequent with road improvements. 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