CALL FOR HIGHWAY 118 CHANGES REFUSED : RESIDENTS URGE $20 MILLION IN SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS.Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer It all started one wet morning last December on a curve along the two-lane blacktop of Route 118. Tires bald bald adj. Lacking hair on the head. bald 1. loss of hair, see alopecia. 2. in cattle and horses used to describe an animal with a white face. Called also baldy. and brakes smoking, a small car crossed the solid yellow line and ended up bumper to grill with a tractor-trailer rig. The car catapulted off the asphalt asphalt (ăs`fôlt, –fălt), brownish-black substance used commonly in road making, roofing, and waterproofing. Chemically, it is a natural mixture of hydrocarbons. , spun once and landed on its roof near the edge of an orange grove. Two women inside were killed, along with the driver's 2-month-old daughter. The crash brought the annual death toll on the roadway to eight, double the number recorded the year before. One week later, a motorist was killed after his car swerved off the road and slammed into a tree. Locals began referring to Route 118 as ``Blood Alley.'' ``The speeds are high, the trucks are big and the traffic is heavy,'' said John Borchard, who runs a citrus citrus Any of the plants that make up the genus Citrus, in the rue family, that yield pulpy fruits covered with fairly thick skins. The genus includes the lemon, lime, sweet and sour oranges, tangerine, grapefruit, citron, and shaddock (C. maxima, or C. grandis; also called pomelo). farm in Somis. ``That adds up to an awful lot of accidents.'' The spate of crashes in December energized a local effort to improve safety conditions on the east-west roadway. While police and county officials say 118 is no more dangerous than other comparable routes, local activists have mobilized under the banner Citizens for a Safe Highway 118 to push for road improvements totaling over $20 million. In a campaign to Caltrans and county officials, activists are calling for more highway patrols highway patrol n. A state law enforcement organization whose police officers patrol the public highways. and the installation of passing lanes, traffic signals and additional lighting. But so far, the only real change on the roadway has been the erection erection /erec·tion/ (e-rek´shun) the condition of being rigid and elevated, as erectile tissue when filled with blood. e·rec·tion n. 1. of signs asking motorists to keep their lights on during the day. The debate has brought into sharp focus changes in this flat farmland community, which only in recent years has witnessed the arrival of strip development and heavy truck traffic. Once a quiet country road, 118 has become a main artery for people who live in the subdivisions of Moorpark and Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. and work in the industrial and office districts of Camarillo and Ventura. Today trucks hauling tomatoes lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to ahead of long rows of compacts carrying commuters. With one lane in each direction, the traffic jams are frequent. ``It's a country road trying to function as an urban highway,'' said county Supervisor Judy Mikels, who drives the route on the way from the seat of county government in Ventura to her 4th District offices. ``I think it's the volume and congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. that really bother people. One problem, and the road is backed up for miles.'' Both traffic flow and safety could be improved with a few projects, said Norm Blacher, chairman of the activist group. Caltrans should start by straightening the curve where the three lives were lost last year, and improving a notoriously awkward intersection at Grimes Grimes is a surname, that is believed to be of a Scandinavian decent and may refer to
``It's a very dangerous two-lane road right now,'' said Blacher. ``There are a number of things we can do about safety that haven't been done.'' Activists know that the ultimate improvement would be to add two lanes and make the route a four-lane freeway. But this prospect, while perhaps inevitable, worries many. ``We're all concerned about safety, but if we make it suitable for even more traffic, we know we're going to attract more people,'' said Borchard. ``People living here still want it to be a country road.'' For a country road used by such traffic, the number of accidents is not unreasonable, said Capt. Dave Palazzo pa·laz·zo n. pl. pa·laz·zi or pa·laz·zos A large splendid residence or public building, such as a palace or museum. [Italian, from Latin Pal of the California Highway Patrol. While the number of fatalities doubled last year, the number of collisions was up only slightly over the past two years, he said. ``Statistically it's not any more unsafe than other routes in the state,'' Palazzo said. ``But when you listen to citizens, it sounds like they're seeing wreck after wreck in front of their house.'' According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. accident reports, there were 98 collisions on the roadway in 1995, up from 94 the previous year. A total of 33 percent of the accidents were caused by speeding drivers, with 16 percent resulting from drivers on the wrong side of the road and 10 percent related to drunk driving. Bad driving has more to do with the accidents on Highway 118 than anything else, Palazzo said. ``All the terrible accidents there were caused by the behavior of drivers,'' he said. ``There's no question there's some really bad stretches of road there - if you make a mistake, you'll pay for it. But almost all accidents are caused by driver error.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (ran in SIMI only--color) Commuters and truck driver s share Highway 118 with tractors. Michael Owen
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