highway 17 revisited

With rockfish season about to start, a lot of you in the south bay will surely be heading over the hill on highway 17 to Santa Cruz and points beyond. I live near the summit and am up and down in the Los Gatos direction multiple times per time, and I make plenty of trips in the other direction too (especially during fishing season...). The road is always dangerous, but seems especially so right now. Anyways, here's a couple of stories from first-hand experience.

1) Recently, I was heading up the hill following a small red pickup that was itself followed by a large truck. The road at Big Moody turn (the last big sweeping turn before Redwood Estates) was dry, except for the very end of the turn, where the road was wet. When it hit the wet patch, the pickup spun around and immediately flipped upside down. The truck missed the pickup by inches. I had to slam on my brakes and barely missed crashing too. Nobody was hurt, but it was literally within inches of sure death for the driver and passenger of that pickup. There's a lot of similar wet spots on the highway right now, so you need to be especially cautious.

2) Last summer I was heading to Santa Cruz to fish. It was pre 5:00am and I'd just passed Scott's Valley, going southbound in the right-hand lane. A car came at me at high speed on the wrong side of the highway---that is, he was going northbound on the southbound side of the divided highway. As I was trying to figure out what the heck had just happened, I met another car doing exactly the same thing. If there had been any traffic on the road (and there sometimes is, even that early), there would almost certainly have been a head-on collision.

Be careful out there...

Yikes!

Especially that second incident  .....No bueno.

Thanks for the reminder

It's everywhere.  I saw two people road raging passing on blind corners on 299 last weekend coming home from Shasta.

This s a great reminder to be safe and expect the unexpected.  The most dangerous part of our sport is getting to the launch, then getting from the launch to back home.

I seen a lot of weird accidents on that road and i learned to be very cautious when i drive on it. I make sure i stay under the speed limit and watch out for any potential road hazards. Like other drivers. Be safe on any road you drive on! Peace.

Terrible how some people have no patience on the road. Having experience in a auto service dept. I have seen to many people driving on tires with no tread. Which causes hydroplaning on small amounts of water at high speeds.   

I always look at the scratches and gouges on the divider in the curves and wonder wtf did people do to cause that?!  If driving the speed limit, 17 is pretty much a cake walk to me.  There are only a few spots where if your going too fast it could be dangerous for you.  However what I worry about most are the idiots that wont pass a Semi, but instead drive side by side with them through the curves and everything.   

People racing on the wrong side of the highway is plain nutz!  However on Highway 9 it's worse than that... Sara used to come home at 11:30-12:00 at night and at the top there are kids pretending they are starring in Need for Speed Tokyo Drift.  And refused several times to even let her pass, doing donuts around her and shit like that.    Cops do absolutely nothing when called...

on a positive note, Santana Paving came out in the last month and did a great job patching all the huge holes on the main arteries in Bonny Doon. Driving on the mountain roads is easy peasy these days.
The big slide blocking Bonny Doon road to Highway 1 was finally removed a few weeks back.

Now if the county could just get Highway 9 open between Felton & Encinal....

I had a very bad bike crash in the 80's on 17. Still gives me the willies to drive it. I go 5 to pacheco threw hollister and out to watsonville. Visit my Mom and Sister on the way to hide the reluctance (fear) of that roadway....

I seen a lot of weird accidents on that road ...

Weird is the perfect description. I've lost count of the number of vehicles that I've seen upside down on 17. Not sure why that's the case, but it seems that if you even tap a guardrail, there's a very good chance you'll flip over.

@nowhereman Thank you for the reminder, we can always remember to slow down and be safe...

I work at the Redwood Estates fire station on occasion, and some of my scariest moments being a fireman have been while working traffic accidents on hwy 17. Setting out traffic cones in a blind turn on a wet road is not fun! Sometimes, even a big fire engine can't protect us from dangerous drivers, drunks, and speeders around those turns.

@nowhereman Thank you for the reminder, we can always remember to slow down and be safe...

I work at the Redwood Estates fire station on occasion, and some of my scariest moments being a fireman have been while working traffic accidents on hwy 17. Setting out traffic cones in a blind turn on a wet road is not fun! Sometimes, even a big fire engine can't protect us from dangerous drivers, drunks, and speeders around those turns.

Be safe out there Rog!!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

growing up in california and living on this side of the hill....i drive a big azz truck now for the mitigation of idiot drivers.  it's everywhere...everyone's in a hurry and out for themselves. 

a similar accident happened a few years ago near scotts valley when a drunk driver rear ended someone northbound.  a friend of mine rescued a girl somehow that was involved in the crash as she was crossing westbound.  while they were crouching in the median next to the k rail another car flew over their heads from the northbound divider into the southbound lane.

leave earlier...drive slow!

Thanks.

Setting out traffic cones in a blind turn on a wet road is not fun! Sometimes, even a big fire engine can't protect us from dangerous drivers, drunks, and speeders around those turns.

Compared to that, dealing with sharks on your kayak has to be a walk in the park...

rshu---good reminder re:  blind turns.  closest I ever got to wrecking on 17 was a pre-dawn trip heading north.  Came around a blind turn, no shoulders and there was a stalled 60's vw bus in my lane.  Lucky no traffic so I could abruptly  loop around it. 

My practice is to set the cruise control at 50mph and stay in the right lane.  EZ Does It.

Bushy

ps great topic title