Fresno County’s ‘blood alley’ claims 22 deaths in 10 years. Blame unsafe road or drivers?
Marc Gonzalez has a name for the section of road directly behind his house in the Fresno County foothills near Millerton Lake.
“You mean ‘blood alley?’ ” Gonzalez asked.
In 2020, the retired school painter and his wife Linda moved from the Bay Area to a newly constructed home in the Bella Vista development near Table Mountain Casino. The Gonzalezes’ house sits at the end of the street, closest to Millerton Road, and they prefer to sleep with the windows open.
“Usually we hear the squeal of the brakes and then the bang,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve been living here (for) two years. In two years we’ve had 14 major wrecks up here, 13 of which we’ve assisted.”
The last time the Gonzalezes heard the familiar squeal and bang of steel — and only time they didn’t assist — was at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 5. Marc climbed out of bed and rushed toward the scene with towels in hand, as he typically does, only to realize the situation far exceeded emergency triage.
Five people in the wreck were killed on impact and two others critically injured.
“I told my wife it was too dangerous because all I saw was two halves of cars,” Gonzalez said.
Such grizzly scenes are all too familiar along Millerton Road. According to the California Highway Patrol, the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over county roads, since 2012 there have been 16 fatal accidents resulting in 22 deaths along the 5.7-mile stretch between the town of Friant and Auberry Road.
A closer examination of accident reports published by The Bee and other Fresno media revealed that a majority of the fatalities occurred in roughly the same place: Millerton Road’s intersection with Marina Drive and Winchell Cove Road, one mile west of the existing Table Mountain Casino and closer to the newly built casino and hotel.
Which is the same turnoff that residents living in what county planners call Millerton New Town use to access their homes.
“It’s just a bad recipe,” said Ryan Mitchum, who moved to Bella Vista in 2019 and otherwise enjoys foothill life. “I think a lot more accidents are going to happen. Especially as this area builds out.”
Millerton Road is largely a two-lane rural road between North Fork Road in Friant and Auberry Road even though it serves both the casino and Millerton Lake State Recreation Area.
Due to heavy traffic and shoulders too narrow for bike lanes, Millerton Road has a fearsome reputation among local cyclists. Many avoid it altogether or only ride the segment between Auberry Road and Sky Harbour Road, 1.5 miles where bike lanes striped years ago are now barely visible.
Divided road still years away
Plans to widen Millerton Road into a four-lane, divided roadway have kicked around Fresno County planning offices for the better part of two decades. On the 2006 expenditure plan for the Measure C transportation tax, it is listed as a Tier 2 project. (Tier 1 projects received funding priority.)
Despite the obvious need, improvements are years away from being shovel ready. Steven White, director of Fresno County Public Works and Planning, said it will take until the end of 2023 to complete the environmental work “if everything goes smoothly.” After that, the county will need to raise $35 million, a sum that includes the acquisition of more than 40 road easements.
Widening the bridge across the Friant-Kern Canal is estimated to cost $10 million by itself.
“People are frustrated it’s taken so long, but I remind everybody how much time it took to do Friant Road and Academy Road,” White said. “And those projects had dedicated funding sources (as Tier 1 Measure C projects). This one doesn’t.”
So far, the only major improvements to Millerton Road have been courtesy of Table Mountain Rancheria.
Prior to constructing their 110,000-square foot casino and 151-room hotel — both appear finished from the exterior but have yet to open — the tribe paid a Sacramento consulting firm to prepare an environmental analysis that included a traffic study. The rancheria then transformed the mile-long section in front of their new expansion into a four-lane, divided road with dedicated turn lanes as well as bike lanes.
“They donated that road,” White said. “They sponsored the whole thing and paid us to inspect it. … That was a huge win for us.”
County planners intend to pick up where the rancheria left off and continue building the divided, four-lane road “down the hill” to Friant, a distance of 3.1 miles. The most optimistic timeline for completion is 2026.
“It’s, where can we find that $35 million? Out of whose bank account?” White asked. “We don’t have the money.”
Piecemeal widening, increased speeding
Meanwhile, residents contend the piecemeal widening has resulted in increased speeding — and at the exact place where they turn in and out of their neighborhood.
Impatient drivers heading east on Millerton Road and toward the casino greet the widened section as an opportunity to pass slower traffic they’ve been stuck behind. At the same time, those headed west accelerate just before the road narrows into two lanes to avoid the same fate.
And all of that occurs directly in front of the turnoff to a fast-growing residential neighborhood (Marina Drive) and another road on the opposite side that leads to Millerton Lake Marina (Winchell Cove Road).
Making matters worse, westbound drivers must negotiate a right-hand turn shortly after the road narrows. In this exact spot earlier this month, five men lost their lives. Four of them were returning to Fresno from the casino.
“This is turning into a racetrack here at the end,” Mitchum said. “Nobody wants to be stuck behind somebody slow, so they’re doing 70, 75, 80 (mph) to pass somebody heading into a turn.”
Residents have appealed to county officials for a traffic signal or some other speed-calming measure but haven’t received any promises. (Table Mountain’s own environmental study calls for a traffic signal at this location and indicates a willingness to help pay for it.)
Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig has fielded those complaints and as a cyclist himself is aware of increased traffic on Millerton Road. However, he believes the number of accidents and fatalities is more a result of unsafe drivers than the road itself being unsafe.
“It doesn’t matter what lights you put in if people don’t follow the law,” Magsig said.
White, the county planning director, echoed that sentiment: “It’s not an unsafe road. It’s that we have a lot of unsafe drivers. I can’t design against impaired and incompetent drivers, but I do my best.”
Development continues
In fact, the assumption that drunken drivers are primarily responsible for the carnage on Millerton Road is false.
Only three of the 16 fatal accidents and eight of the 22 people killed since 2012 were caused by an impaired driver, according to CHP spokesman Mike Salas. (Toxicology reports for the Feb. 5 wreck are pending.) The majority were the result of speeding and/or driver error.
“Table Mountain draws a lot of traffic, but it’s not the road that’s causing the problems,” Salas said. “We wouldn’t have nearly as many accidents if everyone went the speed limit and stayed between the lines.”
Left unsaid is the role played by development. Or more specifically, development that doesn’t pay for its own impacts.
Fresno County is currently in the midst of its first general plan revision since 2000. The Millerton Specific Plan was drafted in 1984. All the while, county supervisors past and present approved new subdivisions along Millerton Road that added to the traffic. Impact fees have not resulted in a wider, safer road.
The first phase of 160 homes at Bella Vista were built in 2014 by Bonadelle Neighborhoods. Construction of Phase II, which includes 106 single-family residences, began in 2018 and remains ongoing. Next up are two adjacent tracts being developed by Granville Homes. One contains 133 home sites; the other 80.
When I visited recently, construction was underway on a new road (Morningside Drive) that will intersect Millerton Road about 0.7 miles west of Marina Drive and service the new neighborhood.
Short of a traffic signal or some other speed-calming measure, residents fear the accidents and fatalities will only increase when the new casino and hotel open. Especially those living within earshot of Fresno County’s “blood alley” in the foothills.
“The wrecks up here are super, super crazy,” Gonzalez said. “It’s unbelievable how hard they hit.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
