Highway 17 commuters concerned after heavy rains with more on the way

Highway 17 and the Santa Cruz Mountains have already been hit with a significant amount of rain this winter.

Outside of accidents, drivers can see the toll rain is taking on Highway 17. “In the heavy rains, it’s really the pavement of Highway 17. The potholes, the construction. The roads are very inconsistent,” says Shawn Mosley who commutes four times a week.

Drivers also say with more on the way, they’re concerned with how road work crews and first responders can keep up with what the weather brings.

“Between the trees falling, the rocks falling, the mud slides, the accidents. The CHP doing the traffic control to control the speed limit. How do you catch up? It wasn’t meant to be a commuter highway and now it is, and I don’t know how many people go over it, but it is more than it’s meant for,” says Marisa Cawley.

Cawley says when she or her husband drive over the hill they take precautions, knowing things can take a turn for the worse at any minute.

“We try to stay in the outside lane, away from the hillside, because there is always rocks and stuff.”

But it’s not just the things that are out of anyone’s control. Driver Tim Johnson says the thing he worries about most, “it’s other drivers. I see a lot of people just presume the roads are going to behave the same as when they are dry and they just don’t.”

This winter has already brought several mudslides, and just two weeks ago, one fatal accident after a tree fell on a man’s car.