Modesto ranked second worst for traffic crashes among cities of similar size in California
Modesto was ranked the second worst for traffic crashes among its peer cities across the state, according to the latest rankings from the California Office of Traffic Safety, sustaining a trend since 2017.
The rankings look at about a dozen types of collisions, including drivers hitting pedestrians, fatal crashes, DUI crashes, hit-and-run and speed-related crashes. It looked at a variety of factors, including population, the number of crashes and miles driven, in calculating the rankings.
Modesto was ranked the worst among the 61 cities for crashes involving alcohol, fifth worst for crashes involving pedestrians (with 96 people injured or killed), seventh worst for crashes involving bicyclists (with 67 people injured or killed) and third worst for hit-and-run crashes.
The OTS released its 2020 crash rankings in December. The OTS groups cities by population. Modesto is among the 61 California cities with 100,001 to 250,000 residents. Modesto had nearly 219,000 residents as of July 2021, according to an estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Modesto has ranked among the worst among its peers in recent years. The Office of Traffic Safety ranked it worst in 2017, second worst in 2018 and worst in 2019. (The OTS website does not list years before 2017.) Drivers running red lights and stop signs, as well as speeding, are among the top complaints residents make to the city and its Police Department.
“This is really important to me,” Mayor Sue Zwahlen said Friday about the need to improve traffic safety. She said the Police Department is putting together a plan to do that. Police Chief Brandon Gillespie could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
Modesto also will have more money for traffic enforcement after voters approved Measure H — a 1% sales tax increase — in November. The tax takes effect April 1 and is expected to bring in $39 million annually to the city’s general fund.
The ordinance the City Council passed for the sales tax states the additional revenue will help improve such services as cleaner and safer parks, faster 911 response times, reducing blight and improving public safety, including traffic enforcement.
City Manager Joe Lopez has said the Police Department’s traffic safety unit has been reduced from 21 to five officers since the Great Recession, and he highlighted the OTS statistics in the spring when he told council members about the impact of budget cuts to the city’s general fund.
Zwahlen said council members are expected to start discussing spending priorities for Measure H within a couple of months.
Zwahlen said she knows firsthand the pain residents feel when a loved one is seriously injured or killed in a traffic crash. She helped them with their grief as a nurse in the Doctors Medical Center emergency department for 37 years.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said, describing the impact of such crashes.
The Office of Traffic Safety said the factors for traffic safety include road design, enforcement and public education campaigns. Zwahlen chipped in on the education factor, urging drivers to slow down, obey traffic laws and pay attention to their surroundings.
Modesto also has taken steps in recent years to improve the design of some of its roads to increase traffic safety.
Modesto’s 2020 traffic crash numbers generally were lower than the city’s numbers for 2017 through 2019, which could be because of the pandemic restrictions that kept many people home in 2020.
For instance, Modesto had 1,726 fatal and injury crashes in 2020, while it had 2,059 fatal and injury crashes in 2019, 1,987 in 2018 and 2,141 in 2017. But Modesto still was ranked second worst in 2020 when compared with its peer cities.
The Office of Traffic Safety places California cities in seven groups based on their population. OTS states on its website that it developed the rankings so cities could compare their traffic safety statistics to similar-size cities.
But OTS issues a caveat about its rankings. “There are many factors that may either understate or overstate a city/county ranking that must be evaluated based on local circumstances,” according to its website.
This story was originally published December 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
