Jose Valladolid Ramirez was fatally struck by a Dodge Ram on June 10 while riding a bike on Fruitridge Road. He was 36. Valladolid was the third person to die this year on Fruitridge Road. This is a stretch of road where many say the city allows drivers to travel at lethal speeds. Twp pedestrians, James C. Lind and David Rink were struck and killed where the posted limit is 40 mph. Valladolid died west of 88th Street, struck while biking through an industrial with a posted speed limit of 50 mph.
Although the city has followed through with some safety enhancements, the results show they remain far from their goals. The Transportation Injury Mapping System shows that on Fruitridge Road along there were 12 fatal crashes from 2020 through 2023. In line with its Vision Zero promise to stop these deaths, the city has plans to make safety improvements to the street. As with many road safety projects in the city, officials have been slow to implement them.
Sacramento has secured funding to make some improvements to a 1.8-mile stretch of Fruitridge between Stockton Boulevard and Power Inn Road, which would include the 65th Street Expressway — the intersection where Rink was hit and killed. These improvements likely include lane reductions which have been shown to help slow down traffic by reclaiming space from motor vehicles. That project is under environmental review and is far from construction.
A spokeswoman for the city, Gabby Miller, said that in the meantime, the city had asked police to step up enforcement. Other than that, “There are currently no plans for short-term emergency safety measures along Fruitridge.” The city also has several unfunded ideas for Fruitridge. A separated bike path — which in Sacramento often means a path with plastic barriers between cyclists and cars — is listed in the city’s Transportation Priorities Plan for Fruitridge between Florin Perkins Road and South Watt Avenue, running through the site of the crash that killed Valladolid. That plan is designated as a “lower” priority.
None of these unfunded ideas have been implemented. Valladolid’s wife, Mayra Miranda says “I just want that road to get fixed”. She doesn’t want another family to go through the same experience. “There’s already three deaths since the year started,” she said. “Why don’t you —“Why don’t you — the city — look at all that?” After the crash that killed Valladolid, the Sacramento Police Department immediately arrested the driver. The 57-year-old man was booked on charges related to driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance. He was in a 2011 Dodge Ram, whose hood height — over 40 inches — makes it 45% more likely to kill a pedestrian than smaller cars, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Vehicles with especially tall front ends are most dangerous to pedestrians, but a blunt profile makes medium-height vehicles deadly too, new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows. Whatever their nose shape, pickups, SUVs and vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches are about 45 percent more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than cars and other vehicles with a hood height of 30 inches or less and a sloping profile, an IIHS study of nearly 18,000 pedestrian crashes found. However, among vehicles with hood heights between 30 and 40 inches, a blunt, or more vertical, front end increases the risk to pedestrians.
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