US 550 is ‘a recipe for disaster,’ engineer says
High speed limit, lack of median barriers cited in road’s high fatality rate
SANTA FE — Government traffic data shows that highway U.S. 550, which stretches through Sandoval County and other parts of northwestern New Mexico, could be the state’s deadliest major highway.
U.S. 550 continued to have a high fatality rate after the state finished widening the highway to four lanes in 2001, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The New Mexico portion of U.S. 550 starts at the Town of Bernalillo, north of Albuquerque, and runs through communities including San Ysidro, Cuba, Aztec and Cedar Hill before reaching Colorado.
Parts of the highway are decorated with roadside memorials, or descanos, honoring people who have died on the road, some dating back to the time before the highway was widened and renamed.
“Basically, anywhere from San Ysidro (north) is a killing zone,” said Village of Cuba police patrolman Brian Waterman, whose agency often responds to the traffic crashes on the highway.
Last month, on May 12, four members of a family from Aztec — Jimmie and Melissa Crawford and their children Grant, 4, and Chace, 2 — were killed on U.S. 550 near Cuba when a northbound utility truck veered into oncoming traffic, hitting an SUV carrying the Crawfords head on. A crash report said a front-tire blowout on the truck triggered the fiery crash that also killed the truck’s driver, Paul Ortega, 47. Sandoval County sheriff’s deputies early on said alcohol was a factor in the crash. Deputies were waiting on Ortega’s autopsy results but wrote that his body smelled of alcohol and listed him on the report as being under the influence of alcohol, according to a previous Journal story.
U.S. 550 has a 70 mph speed limit and a thin median that divides north- and south-bound traffic. It does not have cable barriers or median barriers, which research suggests could prevent
many crashes.
Brad Estochen, state safety traffic engineer for Minnesota, sees the speed limit on U.S. 550 and the narrow median as “a recipe for disaster.”
Several fatalities on U.S. 550 were caused by vehicles veering into oncoming traffic, according to the report. Other possible factors include speeding, driver fatigue, driving and weather.
A 2006 University of New Mexico report found that the after the highway was reconstructed and renamed, there was an increase in reported crash but a decrease in the severity of the crashes along the stretch of highway between San Ysidro in Sandoval County and Bloomfield in San Juan County.
There was a slight decrease in the number of fatal crashes in 2015 and 2016, said state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Emilee Cantrell.