Slightly safer streets
Collisions in Santa Clarita dropped 8.5 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to data released this week
After a concerted effort at outreach, Santa Clarita tallied an 8.5 percent drop in the total number of traffic collisions from 2016 to 2017, based on data released this week.
The total number of collisions declined from 1,810 to 1,657; the number of injury collisions dropped from 653 to 569, a 12.9 percent decrease. Fatal crashes were reduced by 38.5 percent from 13 to eight; and pedestrian-involved collisions were nearly cut in half from 43 to 23.
“It is positive to see that our united efforts to make Santa Clarita streets safer have paid off,” said city spokeswoman Carrie Lujan. “We will continue to utilize our proactive ‘3 E’s’ approach focusing on enforcement, education and engineering. The City appreciates the hard work of our expanded motor deputy team from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Department and all of the residents who continue to make the choice to avoid distractions and obey the law when behind the wheel.”
Accounting for population change, the traffic collision rate dropped 11 percent year-to-year while the injury rate declined 15.4 percent from 2016 to 2017.
City officials released initial numbers earlier this month, hoping for a 10.5 percent drop in traffic crashes and a 42 percent decrease in pedestrian-involved incidents. The city tallies crash data quarterly.
City and law enforcement officials said they formed a committee to create a traffic safety plan after there were 14 fatal traffic collisions and 24 incidents involving pedestrians, seven of which were fatal, in
2016.
The goal for 2017 was a 5 percent reduction in traffic collisions and a 20 percent reduction in pedestrian-involved incidents, officials said. Law enforcement officials issued 45 percent more citations in 2017 than in the previous year.
City officials previously told The Signal the intersections with the most collisions were Soledad Canyon and Bouquet Canyon roads with 16; McBean and Magic Mountain parkways with 11 and Newhall Avenue and Sierra Highway with 10, but Lujan said the data is from January to October 2017 and data including the final months of the year had yet to be finalized. Lujan also said the three intersections are the busiest in the city.
The city’s traffic engineers review copies of every traffic collision report in order to make safety improvements, Lujan said.