As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, a new study is telling us that Highway 99 is the most dangerous road in America. Not only that, Fresno is the worst of the worst, with the most deadly accidents of any stretch of pavement in the the country.
Many of us drive Highway 99. It does go right through the heartland of California, straight up the middle of the Central Valley all the way up to the rice fields north of Sacramento. It’s 424 miles of agricultural heaven, from Bakersfield to Chico, through some of the best farmland ever tilled, but we got to admit, the road gets a little busy at times. We got the rice haulers and tomato trucks competing with the cotton trucks and the grapes heading to the juicer, then you add the farm labor vans heading off to the fields or home from a hard day at work – yes, it’s a busy road.
But the most dangerous highway in America? Come on now. Just think of those times you had to drive through Los Angeles – 99 compares to that mess? I don’t think so. Or how about taking highway 1 through San Francisco? I aged ten years the last time I did that.
That report also says that the highway comes in second for having the most accidents involving a drunk driver. Maybe there’s a relationship there; maybe some of us need a shot of liquid courage before we head out on the nation’s most dangerous highway. Wouldn’t be bright, but maybe that’s what happens. But I really don’t think so. I wonder about the company that put together the report. It’s called ValuePenguin, and specializes in personal financial analysis. The data they used for this study doesn’t make sense. The report says it was based on number of accidents per 100 miles, so of course a heavily driven road will have more accidents than a lightly traveled one. It seems to me the data should have been accidents per 100 miles actually driven instead.
Meanwhile, pray for me, I got to drive to Fresno tomorrow.
I’m Len Wilcox and that’s the Western View from AgNet West.
To see the ValuePenguin study and other highways listed, visit: https://www.valuepenguin.com/most-dangerous-roads-america.