Most dangerous S.J. intersections revealed

McLaughlin Avenue and Story Road tops list for crashes from 2013-2017

The intersection of McLaughlin Avenue and Story Road was the most dangerous in San Jose between 2013-2017, and the Alum Rock area had the most traffic collisions over the same period, according to a study.

South San Jose had the highest number of traffic fatalities among the city’s districts, with 19 deaths over the five years the analysis covered.

The new analysis of traffic collision data — commissioned by the personal injury law firm Henshaw and Henry and conducted by the marketing agency 1Point21 Interactive — found that 100 people died and about 10,000 people were injured citywide.

Collisions happen regularly across the city’s sprawling network of streets. But some intersections see more crashes than others.

The analysis, which relied on figures from a California Highway Patrol database, looked specifically at intersection-related collisions and excluded crashes that happened on highway onand off-ramps.

The McLaughlin/Story intersection was ranked number

one in the report’s list of the 65 most dangerous intersections in the city during that time period. It saw 34 crashes and 45 injuries, including two severe injuries, but no fatalities.

Two fatalities occurred at Capitol Avenue and Capitol Expressway in Alum Rock, making it the most deadly intersection in the city during that time frame and placing it 25th on the list.

The report found that the Alum Rock area had the most crashes, with 1,042 collisions and 1,399 injuries in 592 intersections. South San Jose came in second, followed by Edenvale and Evergreen.

“We handle a lot of collisions and wrongful deaths,” said David Henshaw, a founding partner with the firm, saying that one reason for commissioning the report was to make people aware of “what’s going on in the roads.”

In the last several years, San Jose has upgraded its bikeways, painting them bright green, installing bollards to protect cyclists and reworking street parking so that on many busy roads, cars now park between moving vehicles and bike lanes, providing another layer of protection for bike riders.

But pedestrians and cyclists, in particular, have continued to suffer injury and even death in the nation’s 10th largest city. Mayor Sam Liccardo collided with a vehicle earlier this year while attempting to ride his bike through an intersection, suffering numerous fractures.

And many collisions result in hit-and-runs that go unsolved.

In a statement, the San Jose Department of Transportation

said the city was among the first to adopt a Vision Zero program to end fatalities but acknowledged that the city’s pedestrian fatality count had actually gone up, consistent with the national trend.

“$115 million in traffic safety and efficiency improvements are planned over the next five years to help improve roadway safety and accessibility, and reduce traffic fatalities,” the department said. “The city is also establishing a multidisciplinary and multi-departmental Task Force to help create a two-year action plan (due out in Fall) that will include key investment and implementation strategies, such as safety education campaign, traffic enforcement strategies and data analytic tools for reducing traffic fatalities and severe injuries.”