During a vigil hosted by Slow Down Sacramento for people killed in city traffic collisions, Lunden Almquist takes a picture of a framed photograph in front of a cone on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. The photograph shows her late stepfather, José Luis Silva, who was killed in 2024 while riding his motorcycle in midtown. Sacramento has pledged to eliminate traffic deaths, but data show the city still has some of the most dangerous roads in California.
José Luis Villegas
jvillegas@sacbee.com
The California Office of Traffic Safety named Sacramento the second-worst large city in the state when it came to vehicle crashes that caused injuries or death. The worst was Long Beach.
California’s Office of Traffic Safety publishes “crash rankings,” comparing the outcomes in various parts of the state to other similarly sized areas. The most recent rankings are based on data from 2023.
The 15 largest cities were grouped in the same category and ranked, adjusting for factors such as population size. Although Sacramento is only the sixth-largest city by population, it had the third-highest number of victims in 2023, after only Los Angeles and San Diego. On a per-capita basis, Sacramento had almost four times the injury crash rate as Los Angeles.
When it came to total injury and fatal crashes based on 2023 data, the adjusted ranking from worst to best was:
1) Long Beach, with 3,774 people either killed or injured
2) Sacramento, with 4,214 people either killed or injured
3) Stockton, with 1,913 people either killed or injured
4) Santa Ana, with 1,972 people either killed or injured
5) Anaheim, with 2,135 people either killed or injured
6) Riverside, with 1,805 people either killed or injured
7) Oakland, with 2,013 people either killed or injured
8) Bakersfield, with 2,073 people either killed or injured
9) San Francisco, with 3,505 people either killed or injured
10) Chula Vista, with 969 people either killed or injured
11) San Jose, with 3,294 people either killed or injured
12) Fresno, with 1,600 people either killed or injured
13) San Diego, with 4,861 people either killed or injured
14) Irvine, with 570 people either killed or injured
15) Los Angeles, with 8,116 people either killed or injured
Sacramento was the worst large city for injury crashes that involved alcohol. It was also the worst for crashes that killed or injured victims due to speeding.
Speed is the major factor in most fatal crashes, but vehicle crashes — particularly those involving pedestrians or cyclists — can be lethal at relatively low speeds. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that when a driver strikes a pedestrian at 32 mph, the average risk that the pedestrian will die is already 25%. At 42 mph, the risk jumps to 50%. Many surface streets in Sacramento have speed limits between 30 and 45 mph.
The vast majority of serious crashes are preventable with changes to infrastructure and policy. With that in mind, Sacramento’s City Council made a Vision Zero pledge in 2017 to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2027. However, the council did not make substantial funding changes to support the Vision Zero program, and the average number of annual traffic deaths in the city has risen since the officials made the commitment to end such deaths.
So far this year, collisions on city streets have killed at least nine people: Reema Ram, 37; Maria Aurora Victoria Titman, 29; Christian David Garcia Flores, 31; Eunice La Vonne Queener, 67; Paris Lamar Johnson, 34; Kalia Giselle Cabello Fernandez, 22; and three others whose names have not yet been made public by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office.
Statewide, about 4,000 people die in vehicle crashes every year.
The Sacramento Bee
Ariane Lange reports on regional transportation for The Sacramento Bee. She was a USC Center for Health Journalism 2023 California Health Equity Fellow. Previously, she worked at BuzzFeed News, where she covered gender-based violence and sexual harassment.