Sacramento road where crash killed 2 children has troubling history of dangerous wrecks

Marbella Sala grieved, standing beside a battered oak tree on a Sacramento road she knew all too well.

The scraps of what she called a preventable tragedy were lying in the dirt around her: a jagged shard of a silver hubcap; a discarded pair of trauma shears that emergency responders use to cut off victims’ clothes; shattered glass on the sidewalk. In the dead grass lay a box of gloves the paramedics left behind as they tried to save nine children and two adults the night before.

Sala, president of the Gardenland Northgate Neighborhood Association, blinked long lashes through her sunglasses. She said, “It shouldn’t have happened.”

Two small children and one adult were killed Wednesday night in a horrific single-car collision in Northgate. They were identified Monday by Sacramento County coroner’s officials as 25-year-old Rayshawna Armstrong, 3-year-old Zayden Mangram and 7-year-old Alexander Leon.

Although this was the worst incident on the S-shaped curve on San Juan Road with a posted speed limit of 40 mph, crash reports and neighbors say the quarter-mile stretch has long been dangerous for people traveling on the street.

Since 2011, at least two dozen crashes on that same San Juan curve have resulted in one fatality and 35 injuries, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of traffic incident data from state and local authorities. Six of the crashes compiled by UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System involved “fixed objects” — most likely the trees or light poles on the south side of the curve.

And on Feb. 28, 2017, a driver died after striking a light pole and a tree just a few feet from the scene of Wednesday’s crash.

With two young children dead and seven more seriously injured this week after their sedan hit the oak, residents said it is past time for Sacramento to improve nighttime visibility on San Juan and force traffic to slow down.

Sala said her group met with Northgate’s then-representative on City Council, Jeff Harris, and aired their grievances over the 900 block of San Juan Road two years ago.

But nothing changed, she said: “We wanted lights, they said ‘no.’ We asked for speed bumps, they said ‘no.’”

Harris said that some of the neighbors’ feedback from that meeting was folded into the Ninos Parkway Phase 2 Project Plan, which has the street slated for improvements but has not yet broken ground. The street has a high volume of traffic, which he said precludes speed bumps. Furthermore, the city has to “prioritize ... to use our limited resources.”

Gabby Miller, a representative for the city’s transportation division, said the Ninos Parkway plan is part of the city’s “Vision Zero” goal to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2027. The plan includes a crosswalk, a pedestrian traffic signal, two streetlights at the crosswalk and a pedestrian refuge island. Miller said the city would likely start requesting construction bids this summer.

Karina Talamantes, the current City Council representative, lives nearby and rushed to the scene after the crash. She drives down San Juan almost daily. The Ninos Parkway proposal, she said, was a good start, but not enough.

“Our community, when I hear their frustrations about that road being unsafe, I feel the same way,” she said. The new pedestrian signal under the city’s plan was “a step in the right direction,” but she noted that it wouldn’t slow down all traffic.

“We need to find a way to reduce the speed of traffic around that corner,” she said, “because that corner is dangerous.”

Four lanes of traffic and a high speed limit

The speed of traffic, said Jenitta Gruta, is an ongoing problem. She’s lived near the curve for a decade, and drivers are able to go too fast, “especially at nighttime,” when, she said, there isn’t much lighting in the area.

Annette Emery, a board member of the Gardenland Northgate Neighborhood Association, said, “The roads are wide around here, and people figure, ‘Oh, I can just go as fast as I want.’”

Sala gestured to the stoplight at San Juan and Bridgeford Drive, which controls traffic heading northeast into the curve — if it’s red. But if a driver hits a green light, nothing forces the two eastbound lanes to slow down. The posted speed limit is 40 mph, and so some traffic safety studies are done assuming the cars are going 50 mph.

Police have not said how fast the car with 11 people was traveling when it ran off the road, but Sala said the design of the street enables treacherous speeds.

She gestured to the short, reflective yellow sign with an arrow that warns oncoming traffic of the sudden curve in the street, just before the oak tree that stopped the family’s car.

“That little sign,” she said, “is useless.”

2021 was deadliest year for crashes in county

Too many people die in car crashes in Sacramento County — a problem that has gotten worse in recent years. More people died in Sacramento County car wrecks in 2021 than during any other year in at least the five previous decades — and teens and young adults largely drove the trend.

In Sacramento County, 244 people died in car crashes in 2021, up from 190 in 2020 and 201 in 2019. Sacramento County had not seen that many people die in car collisions since at least 1968, the earliest year federal records are available online.

Looking at ZIP codes in the county, 95834, the area in which two children and one adult died this week, had the third-highest number of fatalities in 2021: Seven.

The ZIP codes with the most deaths in car wrecks tended to be in low-income neighborhoods suffering from historical disinvestment: This neighborhood in South Natomas, as well as 95826 in Rosemont, 95660 in North Highlands and 95824 in Lemon Hill.

More development would lead to safety improvements

Across the street from the site of the crash sits an empty 9-acre lot where a developer has proposed constructing 79 homes. When actual development begins, it could trigger a process that would lead to the installation of a traffic signal. An environmental review of the proposed development noted some changes would likely need to be made to San Juan Road, including a stoplight.

Meanwhile, Talamantes said she was looking for alternative sources of funding to fix the road beyond what the parkway project is slated to change.

“I’m going to do everything I can to possibly get those dollars,” Talamantes said. “It is a terrible tragedy. ... It should never have happened, and I’m going to do everything I can to prevent future accidents like this from happening, and keep the community safe.”

Change can’t come soon enough, Sala said. She wondered whether the community would have to wait on the private developer before the city moved forward with safety improvements. At the base of the oak tree, 11 tea lights lay next to a little cross. Someone had scrawled, “We all pray for all 11 of you.” A can of infant formula had been left as an offering. The two children who died were 3 and 7. The seven who were seriously injured were, police said, no older than 8.

“What is unfortunate is when somebody dies as a result of an accident, then they take action,” Sala said. “It’s unfortunate that it takes horrible accidents to happen to get the attention of the city.”