Hwy. 41 in Madera Co. a perilous corridor

Since 2003, 47 people have died on the road from the Fresno Co. line north to Yosemite park.

Published online on Sunday, Sep. 13, 2009

Former Fresno firefighter Herman Hamm has driven his motorcycle all over California in his retirement years, navigating treacherous mountain highways and coastal roads. But Highway 41 in Madera County really makes him nervous.

"It's probably one of the most dangerous roads in California," Hamm said on a recent morning while filling up at a gas station north of Road 145. "The traffic is just horrendous."

The stretch of Highway 41 from the Fresno County line north to Yosemite National Park is a notoriously perilous route shared by tourists, foothill residents and casinogoers. The two-lane road is full of curves and hills and shoulders that are abruptly cut off by walls of rock or precipitous ledges. But worst of all is the traffic.

According to Caltrans, the number of vehicles northbound on Highway 41 at Road 200, about seven miles south of the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, has increased 70% from 2001 to 2008 -- to nearly 20,000 a day. The growth has been spurred by several factors, including development in the foothill communities of Coarsegold and Oakhurst, and the opening of the casino in 2003.

The presence of all those cars and trucks crammed onto a road with only a handful of passing lanes has led to serious consequences. Since 2003, 47 people have died in crashes -- many of them head-on collisions -- and there have been 635 accidents with injuries, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The worst years for crashes were 2004 and 2005. The annual number of crashes has gone down slightly since then.

Last month, three women on their way to work at the Chukchansi casino were killed when a pickup moved into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with their car.

CHP and Caltrans officials say the highway isn't inherently dangerous and note that many other roads in California are much more difficult to navigate. But, they say, unsafe drivers coupled with the increase in traffic has made it treacherous.

Officials say that millions of dollars have already been spent on widening shoulders, marking the roadway, and installing signal lights.

But environmental restrictions and a lack of money have stymied more improvements.

Many locals believe that nothing short of widening the road to four lanes will be enough to accommodate the increase in traffic.

"Every year there are violent and tragic accidents on Highway 41, and every year we have increased traffic," said Frank Bigelow, a Madera County supervisor who lives in the foothills and has been a volunteer firefighter for 40 years. "What we need is a road that can compensate for bad drivers. We need four lanes."

Bigelow and CHP officials also noted that it's difficult for ambulances and other emergency vehicles to get to an accident scene when traffic gets jammed up.

"I've seen almost every kind of accident on Highway 41," Bigelow said. "The accidents that stick out in my mind are the little children who have lost their lives and who were completely innocent victims."

Malcolm Dougherty, the director of the Caltrans district office based in Fresno, said there are "very realistic" plans to widen to four lanes the one-mile stretch of road between Avenue 11 and Avenue 12 -- though that will only happen when funding is available and is more likely to occur within a decade than within a few years.

Any highway widening plans beyond that, Dougherty said, are only conceptual.

Bad or worse

There is no shortage of tourists, store clerks and foothill residents with stories about close calls on Highway 41.