Where are SLO County’s deadliest roads? These 3 spots have the most fatal crashes
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Deadly Driving in SLO County
A multi-part series by The Tribune
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Where are SLO County’s deadliest roads? These 3 spots have the most fatal crashes
Why are people dying on SLO County highways? Here’s a look at causes behind fatal crashes
SLO County mom killed at deadly intersection days before baby’s 1st birthday. Here’s her story
When will SLO County’s deadliest roads be fixed? These improvements are already in the works
Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series about deadly car crashes in San Luis Obispo County.
Over the past decade, more than 300 people have died in vehicle crashes on roads across San Luis Obispo County.
On average, around 31 people died per year in countywide traffic incidents from 2014 to 2023, according to data from California’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System.
The Tribune analyzed the data to determine the local areas with the most fatal crashes over the past 10 years.
Here are the deadliest places to drive in SLO County:
Is Cholame ‘Y’ SLO County’s deadliest intersection?
Right before 6 a.m. on April 6, 2018, Paso Robles resident Catherine Ann Fox was driving eastbound on Highway 46 when she drifted into the westbound lane.
The 60-year-old woman’s car barreled into a Nissan Versa driven by Moises Hernandez, 28, of Avenal and then collided head-on with a minivan transporting a driver and six farmworkers, California Highway Patrol Officer Pat Seebart said at the time.
Fox and the minivan driver — Tulare resident Jesus Ontiveros — were killed, and nine more people were injured.
The four-vehicle crash occurred west of the so-called Cholame “Y” intersection.
Known colloquially as “Blood Alley,” the Highway 41-Highway 46 interchange has a fatal collision rate higher than the statewide average over the past decade, according to the California Department of Transportation.
During the past 10 years, 24 collisions occurred at the intersection of Highway 41 and Highway 46, Caltrans said.
For decades, drivers traveling through the Y-shaped intersection, where the two highways meet, had to make a harrowing merge that often led to unsafe passing maneuvers and head-on collisions.
“People are at a dead stop waiting to make that turn” onto a stretch of rural freeway where motorists are going 65 to 75 mph, said Seebart, public information officer for the CHP’s Templeton office.
“Usually they either say they didn’t see (the other driver) or they just misjudged the distance,” Seebart said. “They turn in front of a car that’s coming down the hill, and that’s the majority of the crashes that we have out there.”
Blood Alley is perhaps best known as the site where actor James Dean died in a head-on crash on Sept. 30, 1955.
Dean’s Porsche Spyder collided with a two-door Ford driven by Donald Turnupseed. The Cal Poly student was turning from Highway 46 onto Highway 41.
Over the past 10 years, there were nine fatal crashes at or near the intersection, resulting in 11 deaths, according to data from the state traffic records system.
“Our stance is it’s not a dangerous roadway, because people doing something wrong is what causes the crashes,” Seebart said.” But definitely having one lane turn across in front of another oncoming traffic lane is not the most desirable.”
In April 2023, Caltrans broke ground on a $148 million project that will bring a flyover interchange to the Cholame “Y” crossing.
The long-awaited upgrade to the interchange is expected to be completed in 2026, the agency said.
Wellsona Road and Highway 101 site of fatal car crashes
The Wellsona Road-Highway 101 intersection has been the site of the second-most number of traffic fatalities in the county over the past decade.
At this stretch of road, vehicles are forced to make an unprotected cross over Highway 101 near the San Paso Truck Stop between Paso Robles and San Miguel.
Eight people died in traffic incidents at the deadly intersection between 2014 and 2024, according to the CHP and data from California’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System.
Most recently, Paso Robles resident Brianna Mae Thomas was driving eastbound on Wellsona Road on Aug. 28 and went straight through the intersection with Highway 101, according to a CHP news release.
At that moment, 44-year-old Justin Levi Adams of Pahrump, Nevada, was driving a big rig northbound on Highway 101, the CHP said.
Thomas failed to yield to the right-of-way of the truck and drove directly into Adams’ path, according to the release. She was instantly killed.
“People have to pull out in front of traffic to get across to the northbound lanes (of the freeway),” Seebart said. “It’s just the design of the roadway. That’s how they have to get to the other side of the road.”
“It’s people being impatient, pulling out in front of people” that leads to trouble, he added. “They think they have time.”
The crossing has a fatal collision rate higher than the statewide average, according to Caltrans.
The agency planned to put an underpass just south of the intersection, but roadwork has been delayed for years. However, construction is slated to start in the next few months.
How many people have died on Highway 101 in Paso Robles?
Since 2014, eight people have died on Highway 101 near the Spring Street on- and off-ramps in Paso Robles, according to data from the state traffic records system.
The area has been plagued by a series of crashes involving drunk and wrong-way drivers.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2015, Paso Robles resident Lauren Allysa Alderete, 23, was driving the wrong way and entered a southbound lane off-ramp of Highway 101 near Spring Street.
She collided head-on with Lindsay Matzie, 26, of Los Osos who was driving a sedan and carrying two passengers.
According to court documents, Alderete had a blood alcohol content of 0.15%.
Matzie was pronounced dead at the scene and her friends were taken to local hospitals with serious injuries, The Tribune reported in 2015.
Out of eight fatal crashes to have taken place on Highway 101 near Spring Street in the past decade, five were caused by drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to data from California’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System.
How dangerous are other roads in SLO County?
Several sections of Highway 101 have been the sites of multiple fatal crashes over the past 10 years in San Luis Obispo County, according to Angela Molinar, a CHP public information officer for the San Luis Obispo area.
For instance, five people have died in crashes on Highway 101 within about a mile of the Tefft Street on- and off-ramps in Nipomo over the past decade.
Molinar could not point to any specific stretch of Highway 101 that resulted in more deaths than another.
However, she said crashes on the freeway often share common causes, such as speeding, driving under the influence or distracted driving.
“From teenagers all the way up to elderly drivers, everyone has a distraction,” Molinar said, ranging from food and phones to other people in the vehicle.
Here are 10 of the sites in SLO County with high number of roadway fatalities from 2014 through June 2024, according to data from the state traffic records system:
- Highway 101 near Madonna Road in San Luis Obispo: Four fatalities
- Highway 101 near TV Tower Road in San Luis Obispo: Four fatalities
- Highway 46 and Buena Vista Drive in Paso Robles: Four fatalities
- Highway 41 and Old Morro Road East in Atascadero: Three fatalities
- Highway 41 near Cholare Road in Atascadero: Three fatalities
- Highway 101 near Avila Beach Drive in Avila Beach: Three fatalities
- Highway 101 near Del Rio Road in Atascadero: Three fatalities
- Highway 101 near Monterey Road in Paso Robles: Three fatalities
- Highway 101 near Reservoir Canyon Road in San Luis Obispo: Three fatalities
This story was originally published November 21, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
