The city of Santa Clarita is hoping roadwork will improve the safety of Sand Canyon Road, where several traffic accidents and deaths have occurred.

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“In the past 10 years, from 2003 to 2013, 271 traffic accidents and seven deaths have occurred on Sand Canyon Road, “ said Deputy Josh Dubin of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

“The most common cause of accidents is failure to yield and the most common age range of people involved in accidents on Sand Canyon Road is 16-25 years old,” he said.

The city will implement Speed Feedback Signs and re-stripe the road in the area where the most accidents occur.  Speed Feedback Signs show a driver the speed limit of the road as well as the speed their car is traveling.

“We’re planning on placing two speed feedback signs on Sand Canyon Road, one for each direction along the roadway,” said Gus Pivetti, senior traffic engineer for the city of Santa Clarita. “The northbound one will be located near Sultus Street and the southbound one will be located between Lost Canyon Road and Alamo Canyon Road.”

The two locations are on each side a curved part of the road where many accidents occur.

“Striping improvements will occur in a couple locations near Alamo Canyon Road,” he said. “Reflectors will be added.”

In the future, a guard rail is planned to be installed around the infamous oak tree that is south of Alamo Canyon Road.  

Ken Fisher, homeowner of the property where the oak tree is located commented on a traffic accident that happened in 2012.  Two teens were street racing and collided into the oak tree.  One suffered minor injuries while the other died.

“Nobody should have to see dead bodies, broken people and broken cars. This is a curve that goes right into a straightaway,” Fisher said. “It’s also a place where there’s a strip for cyclists and a walking horse trail.”

The city of Santa Clarita has responded to Fisher’s plea to fix the problem of speeding and accidents on Sand Canyon Road.  

“The reason we’re doing is to prevent fatal traffic accidents,” said Andrew Yi, city traffic engineer for the city of Santa Clarita. “There is a lot of excessive speeding and people who have used substances driving on this road, so we want to warn driver what the speed and how fast they are going.”

The road will have to be fixed in order to add the guard rail.

“In the next two months, we will re-stripe, in the next 3-4 months, we will have the speed feedback signs and the guard rail is being looked into,” Yi said. “We need to make sure it can be designed and the city has hired an engineer to look into it.”

Nine vehicles have crashed into the oak tree in the past 32 years, resulting in 3 deaths on the property, information found through KHTS AM 1220 and SCVnews.com archives.

“The city is trying to make Sand Canyon Road safer,” said Evan Thomason, communications representative for the city of Santa Clarita. “We have been working with sheriffs department for more enforcements.”

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