Changes could come to dangerous stretch of 101 south of Salinas

Jayne Smith says she’s seen enough. Growing up around south Salinas, Smith has witnessed first hand the increasingly dangerous stretch of Highway 101 between Salinas and Chualar.

“Three weeks, we’ve had three more deaths,” Smith said.

One problem lies with turnaround lanes in the 101 Median. It is legal in spots for cars to make a u-turn, and for big rigs to exit off one side of the freeway, and cross two lanes of traffic to head into an adjacent field or street. Often, traffic comes at them at 70 miles per hour.

Smith helped start the South of Salinas U.S. 101 Traffic Safety Alliance, last year.

“(We have) had some conversations about improving signage, maintenance along this area,” Smith said.

Her mission involves highlighting the problems of 101, showing government agencies the stats, maps, and pictures of tragic wrecks. That included a crash in August where a three-year-old was thrown from a car.

“Unfortunately, the child that was ejected from his car, the family vehicle, the three-year-old, and airlifted, in August, is what brought us together and brought me together with this group,” said Smith, who tells KION she drives on that road with her 18-month-old daughter.

Smith has met with the Transportation Agency for Monterey County, which admits that change is needed. It was only last week when correctional officer Humberto Ayala was killed after colliding with a big rig making that daring left turn despite pulling two trailers. TAMC’s plan is to remove a driver’s ability to cross into a medium. They plan on building an interchange and frontage roads somewhere between Salinas and Chualar.

“Cal Trans is going to be doing their standard highway safety and maintenance projects as years go on, but this is really going to take a major interchange project to fix, TAMC Principal Engineer Rich Deal said.

KION asked why these unusual turns are here to begin with. Deal said the turns are from a time when the area was even more rural with fewer cars on the road.

Some say they don’t want to risk it anymore. Guillermo Gomez drives a big rig through south Monterey County, and takes the back roads.

“I go to Chualar, or Soledad, or anywhere, I take the cuts just to avoid that highway. Because I don’t like that,” Gomez said.

TAMC right now has 30 million dollars for their interchange project through Measure X, and hope for a matching 30 million dollars from the state’s gas tax fund. ​​​​​​And that is where the problem now lies. TAMC says is Prop 6 passes in November, and the gas tax is repealed, the South of Salinas 101 project is in jeopardy. They tell KION they don’t have another plan to stop these dangerous left turns.