Roadway deaths on the rise in San Joaquin Valley, including Modesto
The eight people killed on Stanislaus County roadways in the last week is reflective of a disturbing trend in fatal traffic collisions throughout the San Joaquin Valley that started last year.
Last week, the California Highway Patrol’s Central Division – which spans from Stanislaus County to the back side of the Grapevine – announced a “vigorous zero tolerance enforcement effort” after seeing a nearly 18 percent increase in fatal collisions in 2020 compared to the previous year.
The number of fatalities has been increasing since 2018, when there were 286 within the division. In 2019 there were 333 and in 2020 there were 392.
Officer Rob Montano, a spokesperson for the division, said unsafe turning movements are the primary factor for these collisions, meaning people who drift off the road and then over-correct back onto traffic lanes.
While it can be difficult to prove and very few admit it, distracted driving is often what leads to these unsafe turning movements, Montano said. The CHP subpoenas phone records in fatal collisions to determine if there was a phone or text conversation leading up to the crash but Montano points out they can’t always tell if a driver was using an app on the phone.
Other causes for unsafe turning movements are drunk, drugged or sleepy driving.
Speed has also been a problem. Montano said there was a 98 percent increase in tickets issued for speeds in excess of 100 mph in 2020 compared to 2019. The increase in speeds was most apparent during the early stages of the pandemic when a stay-at-home order was in effect and motorists were taking advantage of open roadways.
Montano said Fresno and Bakersfield have historically been problem areas in the central division and it appears 2020 was no exception, although he is still waiting on data from those area offices.
In Stanislaus County, the increase was slight – 44 in 2020 compared to 43 in 2019 – but it should have been lower given fewer vehicles on the road during the stay-at-home order, said Officer Tom Olsen, a spokesperson for the Modesto-area CHP.
“The CHP will be utilizing every available asset, including aerial, ground, and motorcycle units, to deploy special traffic enforcement and commercial strike forces,” according to a press release from the central division about its ‘Drive and Stay Alive’ campaign.
In the Modesto area, the CHP hopes to decrease fatalities through education, including classes for new drivers, as well as enforcement. They plan to have enforcement operations two to four times a month and increase the number of officers on those details from two to as many as five, Olsen said.
An operation Thursday targeted speeders on the Highway 99 corridor. Officers issued 76 citations; 46 were for speeding and the others were a mixture of offenses like following too closely or using a cell phone.
The agency will also focus efforts on Highway 132 and Interstate 5, where a mother and her 9-year-old daughter died Wednesday when their vehicle was hit by a box truck.
That crash brought to seven the number of people killed in the Modesto CHP’s coverage area so far in 2021 compared to eight during the same time last year. Since then, three more people have died in accidents, and a pedestrian was hit and killed over the weekend in Turlock.
In the city of Modesto, two motorcyclists were also killed in separate crashes on Wednesday evening, the fourth and fifth traffic fatalities of the year.
Modesto Police also saw in increase in 2020 with 17 fatal collisions compared to 15 in 2019.
The five fatalities this year compared with three during the same time last year. Three of the people who died this year were motorcyclists and two were pedestrians.
Modesto Police Traffic Sgt. Daniel Starr said officers will be deployed to focus on enforcing laws relevant to motorcyclist and pedestrian safety.
“I believe some of these collisions could have been avoided if drivers had been driving at a slower speed and been paying attention to their surroundings” he said.
This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
