Hollister
– For many San Benito County residents, trips on Highway 25
between Hollister and the Highway 101 interchange are
unavoidable.
Hollister – For many San Benito County residents, trips on Highway 25 between Hollister and the Highway 101 interchange are unavoidable.
Fortunately, driving that two-lane highway – once notorious for deadly car crashes – has become much safer in recent years.
The number of wrecks on Highway 25 between Hollister and the Highway 101 interchange has dropped from 84 in 2001 to 46 so far this year, according to the California Highway Patrol. The number of crashes resulting in injury has dropped by more than half during the same period, from 36 five years ago – when five crashes resulted in fatalities – to 14 through Dec. 26 of this year.
The last fatal crash on 25 was in 2002, the CHP said.
And Highway 25 is a little busier than it was five years ago, with an average of 21,000 vehicles now using the road daily, compared to 20,000 in 2001, according to the California Department of Transportation.
Hollister resident Carlos Munoz, who works in Morgan Hill and commutes daily via Highway 25, said he has seen an improvement in driving conditions along the corridor during his nine years of commuting.
“I think it’s safer,” he said. “But I think it’s due to more people obeying the laws.”
When Munoz began making the Hollister-to-Morgan Hill commute, he said, he experienced his share of close calls. Passing and speeding were big problems, he said.
“There were times when I would have to slow down because the guy going around me wasn’t going to make it,” Munoz said.
Other commuters have noticed a change as well.
Mike Hurtado, who works as a delivery driver, has been commuting to San Jose for 15 years. Until recently, the Hollister resident said, he would take alternate routes to Gilroy to avoid the Highway 25 corridor altogether.
“Before, I would see people doing foolish things,” he said. “Passing on the right, passing both ways.”
But Hurtado began to hear and read less and less about the crashes and problems along Highway 25, which got a major safety makeover in 2002. The entire 12-mile stretch between Hollister and Gilroy was made a no-passing zone, with a widened median including rumble strips and double-double yellow lines. Motorists are also required to use their headlights at all hours.
Hurtado decided to take advantage of the more direct route.
“Now I find myself taking 25 every morning,” Hurtado said. “Within the last two years I haven’t had any issues or had any concerns. Maybe people have just matured and learned to leave for work a little earlier.”
The decrease in crashes and injuries is due in part to improved safety features along Highway 25, education of commuters and drivers, and law enforcement, Hollister-Gilroy area CHP Officer Chris Gallegos said.
Commuters have even practiced self-enforcement, he said.
“We’ve been called by citizens and alerted that someone has passed on the double lines several times,” Gallegos said.
The crashes that do occur now tend to have less to do with ill-advised passing – although it still occurs – and more to with tailgating and inattentive driving, the CHP said.
CHP Officer Brad Voyles, who tracks accident statistics for the CHP in the Hollister-Gilroy area, said the majority of accidents now are rear-end crashes that occur within one-half mile of the junction of Highway 25 and Highway 156 or near the Highway 101 interchange.
Although he acknowledges Highway 25 has been made safer, Hurtado said he and other commuters would still like to see more improvements made.
“I would still love to see double lanes going both ways,” he said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or
mv*********@fr***********.com
.
