Extra delays expected on Highway 17 this weekend

For thousands of drivers on Highway 17 through the Santa Cruz Mountains, Memorial Day weekend began with some traffic.

“Today was pretty bad since we had the moisture on the road,” driver Anthony Brunetti said. “There were about five accidents.”

Backups were seen in Los Gatos and also from Glenwood Drive to Vine Hill Road but for Brunetti, who commutes from La Selva beach over the hill to Santa Clara, Highway 17 is bad almost every day — not just holidays.

“(There are) a lot of people who shouldn’t be driving, not paying attention, distracted driving, people who are impatient and people who are inexperienced,” said Brunetti.

Looking ahead, the California Highway Patrol is expecting that Saturday will be busy southbound, and on Monday and Tuesday northbound will likely see more brake lights as folks head home.

“We’re expecting a lot of traffic on 17, we’re going to have extra officers deployed to make sure everyone reaches their destination safely,” Sgt. Grant Boles with CHP Santa Cruz said.

This winter the road got hit hard after several mudslides. The rains also punished a popular alternate route.

“The alternate routes that were available for the public to use, such as Soquel San Jose Road, are closed due to the storms,” Boles said.

Brunetti was there the night a portion of Soquel San Jose road washed away.

“The road started collapsing. They (crews) started packing it in as much as they could to get who was on the road off,” Brunetti said.

“It took me seven hours to get home.” So this weekend, Brunetti said, he’s not going anywhere.

“We are actually going somewhere next weekend. We took time off so we could beat the crowds,” said Brunetti.