The perils of Pacheco Pass Highway are fairly plain to see:
Blind curves, curves that bank in the wrong direction and two to
four lanes that leave little room for error.
The perils of Pacheco Pass Highway are fairly plain to see: Blind curves, curves that bank in the wrong direction and two to four lanes that leave little room for error.
Add to that 35,000 to 45,000 cars and semi-trucks a day and U.S. Highway 152 can range from an annoyance to a hazard.
“It’s the volume of traffic and the rate of speed that comes along with it,” said Ben Moreno, who has lived on the highway near Cañada Road for about 20 years. “It’s getting worse, you can definitely see it.”
Speeders can include all drivers, according to officers with the California Highway Patrol. Semi-trucks may receive more attention when involved in a crash because they can drastically affect the flow of traffic. But the majority of truck drivers are obeying the rules of the road, they say.
Semi-trucks accounted for 23 percent of the 230 collisions on Pacheco Pass since April 2004, according to CHP statistics. Trucks were involved in 18 collisions on the western portion of the road – from U.S. 101 to the Highway 156 interchange – and 19 collisions on the eastern portion, to the Merced County line.
On a recent afternoon, Officer Jason Workman patrolled Pacheco Pass from the 156 interchange to about five miles east, where a center divider begins. With an eye on his radar, most trucks registered close to the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit. He also watches for trucks driving in the left lane, except to pass a slower truck.
“A lot of crashes are speed related, so we’re mostly watching for speed,” Workman said, “pretty much any moving violation that’s going to reduce (casualties).”
The relatively flat, four-lane portion of the highway east of Casa de Fruita is a popular place for speeding and for CHP crackdowns because patrol vehicles can make U-turns and pull over both cars and trucks.
In the past three months there have been 29 collisions, eight injuries and one fatality on Pacheco Pass from the 156 interchange to the Merced County line. From the 152/156 west, there were 18 collisions – two with injuries – but no fatalities in the same time period.
About 3pm, Workman’s radar, pointed at a semi-truck traveling west, read 63 mph. He made a U-turn through the weed-filled median and pursued the truck to issue a ticket.
“Trucks you don’t have a high tolerance for because they drive so much,” Workman said. “More than everybody else, they’re watching their speed all the time.”
California’s 55 mph speed limit for trucks on any highway or freeway is lower than in some neighboring states. Truckers in Nevada can drive 15 mph faster, said Officer Matt Ramirez.
“They give us different reasons for different things, but the majority of the truckers that I stop, they’re usually late,” Ramirez said. “They’re usually trying to get their shipment in.”
A crash one month ago involved a big rig hauling 40,000 pounds of candy and cookies and closed westbound 152 for 10 hours from near Dinosaur Point, at the top of the pass. The road was wet and a mist was falling at the time of the early morning crash. The truck’s tire marks can still be seen up a roughly 15-foot embankment on the right shoulder where the cab traveled up and disconnected from the trailer. Both parts of the truck overturned, spilling the truck’s contents into the highway. The driver was not seriously injured.
“The witnesses thought he may have fallen asleep, but he said he didn’t,” Ramirez said.
Pacheco Pass residents are used to the crashes. Moreno said he sees about one a week. A semi crashed onto his property about six years ago.
“It came through and almost hit our house,” he said. “It actually went through our fence and took out a telephone pole.”
Fifteen people have died on 152 since April 2000, in 529 crashes, according to the CHP.
Pat Midtgaard, who has lived a few miles west of Casa de Fruita for 35 years, said if the sound of traffic changes, “then we know something’s wrong.”
Most accidents near her home occur because cars pass in the double-yellow no-passing zone, she said.
“The drivers that are really scary to me are the ones that don’t observe the 55 mph speed zone,” she said. “They have a freeway mentality. They continue to want to push 75, 80 mph on a two-lane road that has many exits and entrances from the highway onto private property.”
Speed isn’t necessarily the biggest issue for Louise Duke, a Pacheco Pass resident for the past 25 years. It’s simply the traffic volume.
“It gets kind of worrisome,” she said. “Of course, when we turn (left) off the highway into our place, a string of cars are coming and it is quite difficult to get in our driveway.”
But with home prices on this side of the hill continuing to rise, it is unlikely she will see fewer commuters.
Ramirez thinks a lower speed limit for trucks would not change things on the highway, but solutions to improve the road in general could. Federal funding for a flyover ramp for drivers eastbound on 152, across Highway 156, was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year. However, the bill has not yet passed the Senate.
“I think it’s definitely in need of improvement and widening,” Ramirez said, particularly on the two-lane road because speeding vehicles cannot be pulled over and crashes are not easily cleared.
“If they widened it, then (trucks) would be coming closer to our house, so I don’t know about that,” Moreno said.
Living off the highway takes patience, Midtgaard said. Her family also decided it was too dangerous to keep cattle because they could easily break through a fence. In exchange, she lives in privacy with a beautiful view of fields and mountains.
“I guess we’re just willing to pay the price for that and just deal with it,” she said.
