Douglas County commissioners are taking a new look at the possibility of regulating the type of mailboxes allowed in rural areas and their placement along roads.

Safety for motorists is the main reason for revisiting an issue initially discussed in 2003, County Engineer Keith Browning said. The proposal re-emerged in 2004 and last year.

“We’re wanting to do what we can to make the roadsides more forgiving to an errant vehicle,” he said.

During a period from 2001-2004 there were 1,439 accidents on county roads reported to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. Of those, 354 involved vehicles leaving the roadway and 18 of the reports listed a mailbox as a fixed object that was struck.

But Browning thinks there are more accidents involving mailboxes. The mailbox wouldn’t be listed as the “fixed object” on a report if a car went on to strike a tree before coming to a stop.

One proposal would ban mailboxes set in masonry structures, although Browning says there aren’t many of those in Douglas County.

A year ago it was determined there were 120 mailboxes in the county that, for various reasons, probably would not meet new regulations. The latest regulation proposal calls for county public works employees to remove and replace mailboxes that don’t meet regulation standards, which would eliminate the need for the property owner to pay the cost. In most cases that would cost about $80 per mailbox, Browning said.

“There are a few out there, the more masonry type, that it could take two or three hours to take out and that would be more costly,” Browning said.

Commissioners will meet at 6:35 p.m. today at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Mass.