Safety concerns emerge after crash kills two people on Big Sur coast

BIG SUR, Calif. (KION) Some residents are bringing attention to a lack of guard rails along Highway 1 in Big Sur after two people were killed in an accident Tuesday.

Big Sur is known by both tourists and locals for it’s beautiful outlooks over the ocean, but for some these cliffs have proven to be dangerous.

Just a day ago, a car plummeted off a cliff in a fiery crash that killed two
people along Highway 1 near Lucia. The CHP says the driver lost control of
the vehicle.

On New Year’s eve, a another vehicle drove off the side of a cliff. Miraculously, the driver survived, but it could have been much worse.

5,000 vehicles travel along this stretch of the highway each day, according
to the California Department of Transportation, and drivers KION spoke with said something needs to be done to make this area safer.

William Moffitt, driver:
"there's a lot of sections that could really use some guardrails.""There's a
vehicle and a cliff and you need something in between that."

Caltrans said more than 50 percent of the area has guardrails and that many factors go into determining where they put them up.

Spokesperson Colin Jones said this includes "speed limit, the curves in
those areas, the collision history. For instance, we often put guardrail
where there's a curve such the car is likely to veer off to the west or the
ocean side."

Caltrans is constantly investigating areas where they should put up new
guardrails, but Jones said they don't have the funding and materials to get them up everywhere.

"We can't put guardrail. We don't have the resources to put them on every stretch of the highway , but certainly where there's a curve where your car tends to drift to one side."

Caltrans works closely with the CHP to investigate incidents like this to
determine if there's something on the roadway that could have prevented this accident or if it's an isolated incident.

The accident was reported in the early morning hours, around 4 a.m., so it was likely dark at the time.

As for getting up lights there, Caltrans said the road isn't heavily
traveled at night so they don't typically put them up.

Drivers should use their high beams and slow down, especially at night.

Many drivers going through the area said they keep it slow even in the daytime to stay safe on the winding roads.

"Take it slow. That's thing, there are unusual turns. If you take it
slow, you'll  be fine. If not, it's really tragic," said Betsy Kaufmann who was traveling through Big Sur Wednesday.

The victims of the crash have not been identified yet and the coroners
office will notify family before their identities are released.

The CHP told KION they investigated 77 collisions on SR-1 between
Garrapata Creek Bridge and the Monterey/San Luis Obispo County lines in
2019.