Deadly stretch of Highway 41 in Fresno County needs urgent fixes – or more will die

Highway 41 between Elkhorn and Excelsior Avenues south of Fresno is only six miles long, but it’s been the site of thousands of car accidents — many of them fatal.

We’re all familiar with this section of the highway. If you’re coming home from a trip to the coast, it’s the home stretch. If you’re headed to work in Hanford or Lemoore Naval Air Station, you’re just starting your journey. Either way you’re driving, this two-lane stretch of highway with no center divider is a harrowing part of the trip.

Accidents in this area have nearly doubled in the last five years. With three fatal accidents in the last three months, there is a growing community effort demanding immediate action from Caltrans to make this area safer for drivers. I have joined them, along with Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes.

On this stretch of highway, drivers go from two lanes in either direction with a wide center divider to one lane each way with double yellow lines. Add drunk, sleepy or impatient drivers into this mix and you get a head-on crash.

According to Supervisor Mendes, who has been working on this issue for years, widening this section has been on and off of the Caltrans to-do list since 1986. There is surely a long list of excuses as to why the project has been delayed for 30 years. But we’re not going to take “no” for an answer this time around.

A nearly $60 million project is finally in the works, but it’s only in the planning stages now — a five-year process with no guarantee of completion and no promise of adequate funding. Also in the works is a safety study to find out if the roadway is wide enough for concrete barriers that would keep cars and trucks from passing.

Community members and families who’ve lost loved ones in this area have every right to be frustrated with decades of inaction by Caltrans. They are mounting a serious effort to bring attention to this problem. They’re not only demanding immediate action from Caltrans, they’re taking action themselves.

The “Widen Highway 41” Facebook page has grown to 5,000 members in the past several weeks. Several eight-foot-tall signs have been put up by members of the Facebook page on farmland next to the highway. The signs urge drivers in both English and Spanish to slow down, cautioning them against passing. One sign even has a picture of the mangled wreckage of Ken Atkins’ car. Atkins was killed in a head on crash on his way to Lemoore Naval Air Station in September.

This group of dedicated and outraged community members includes several mourning families. Atkins’ family started the movement. Joel Carrillo’s family has joined them. Carrillo was heading home from work in Hanford just two weeks ago. He was killed in a head-on crash, too. This will be the first of many Thanksgivings, Christmases and birthdays these families will spend without their loved ones and sadly, they’re not alone. Without immediate action by Caltrans, it’s just a matter of time before the next fatal crash.

The “Widen Highway 41” movement is a community movement. The time to fix this death trap is now. For Ken, for Joel, for their families, for all drivers.