Photograph by George Sakkestad
A motorist inches out from Bear Creek Road onto Highway 17, where making a left-hand turn has become more difficult than ever.
By Clarence Cromwell
After a fatal accident this month at Bear Creek Road and Highway 17, south of Los Gatos, Caltrans has cautioned drivers not to turn left across the highway during peak commute hours.
The crash was the result of such a turn, Caltrans officials said.
Margaret Green of Sunnyvale died April 9 when her Chevrolet Lumina crashed into a box van driven across her path by Bryon Keith of Boulder Creek. As Green drove south on 17, Keith turned left from Bear Creek, aiming for the northbound lanes of 17 and colliding with Green's car. Green was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.
California Highway Patrol Sgt. John Maxfield said the accident, although fatal, was the only crash along Highway 17 between Montevina and Bear Creek roads since Caltrans closed Black Road on April 3.
Caltrans is building a new overpass and a cloverleaf to eliminate the dangerous left turns across the highway. But with Black Road closed for the construction, more cars now enter the highway at Montevina, said Caltrans engineer Surjit Bains. Traffic is causing a three-minute backup there during commute hours.
"People have the tendency, once they've been waiting a long time, to turn out sooner than they should," Maxfield said. "The bottom line is that these people have the option to make the right turn and go up to Redwood Estates and turn around."
Maxfield emphasized that drivers should start trips early for the next month to allow extra commute time for the 10-minute detour to the Redwood Estates exit.
Caltrans traffic engineers agree. Bains said a new sign went up near Montevina last week asking drivers to turn right rather than left, turning back at the Redwood Estates cloverleaf.
When the Black Road bridge opens in about a month, the left turns at Bear Creek will be blocked by a traffic median. Drivers will travel to Black Road on a frontage street and cross the highway, on the new bridge, to a northbound on-ramp. Bains said Caltrans doesn't want to block left turns before then because the turns are only troublesome during peak hours; at other times, when Highway 17 has less traffic, the trip to Redwood Estates would be unreasonably long.
In the meantime, Caltrans is speeding up construction to get the new overpass finished. Bains said he's trying to arrange Saturday shifts and longer weekdays to complete the bridge within the next month.
"It will be an inconvenience for people for a month or so, but then they will have safe access," Bains said.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 24, 1996.
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