DYING TO GET HOME Vasco Road Outrage Revisited
	June 2004

by Joanne Flynn
Photos by Brad Shifflett

One of too many fatal accidents on Vasco Road

Jeff Altman and I are doing as well as can be expected seven months after Tricia, who was Jeff's wife and my best friend, was killed in a senseless accident on Vasco Road. The oldest of Jeff's sons is helping take care of his four brothers while Jeff works fulltime to keep food on the table.

The Altman house is pretty quiet without Tricia's happy laughter, but it hasn't even been a year yet, so that's to be expected.

I miss her every day. We were so close. There are still times when I cry or get mad because I can't pick up the phone and call her. Vasco Road did that to us — did it to me and to Jeff. We've got to make it stop.

People think that Vasco Road isn't safe. However, the worst part of the road is the twisting narrow section towards Livermore, and there hasn't been a fatality on that unimproved part of Vasco Road in seven years. So it isn't actually the road itself that causes the problems.

The only complaint we have — and it is a big complaint — is that the road doesn't prevent problems. In other words, the road doesn't do anything to stop drivers from crossing the double-yellow line and driving 80 or 100 miles an hour in an attempt to pass a line of cars going at the speed limit, or, more commonly, passing a line of cars that are, themselves, going 20 miles an hour over the speed limit.

For the past seven months Jeff and I have been working with CRAVE (Concerned Residents About Vasco Experiences) and with the County Advisory Task Force, which is formed of representatives from the community and from the California Highway Patrol.

Improving the safety of Vasco Road has not proven to be a simple task. During this time we have gained some insight into how big a challenge we're actually confronted with in fixing this problem. The task requires intelligence, perseverance, and a sense of humor (to keep you from going mad).

A Team Effort
We've been pleased and surprised by the amount of support we've received from elected officials on both the municipal and state levels, as well as from the Highway Patrol. They all agree that something needs to be done. Members of the team have been working together effectively. When we have questions we can call somebody and get answers. If there are meetings that Jeff and I should attend, we get a call. We've been kept informed about proposed legislation.

The California Highway Patrol, in particular, has been doing a fantastic job and we've accomplished some good things in the past seven months:

• Designation of the Daylight Headlight Zone
• Designation of the double fine zone
• Designation of the road as a Safety Corridor
• Improved signage
• Installation of radar feedback signs

Jeff and I are members of the Public Service Subcommittee for the task force, which includes David Piepho, Cliff Kroeger (CHP), Annette Beckstrand (Brentwood Vice Mayor), and Brenda De La Ossa (Supervisor Greenburg's Community Liaison), plus two seniors from Liberty High School, Danica Northend and Eric Bridges.

The two seniors on the sub-committee are developing PSAs (Public Service Announcements), which will consist of 60-second TV spots. The two students are directing and producing these. We are delighted by their professionalism and the quality of the work they are doing.

Sample of another alternative

County Level Let-down
The County is the only part of the team that has not been doing their job well, in our opinion. The County conducted the Camino Diablo intersection improvement and many of the people we have heard from think that they spent their millions in making a bad situation even worse.

The County has been monitoring the intersection and they report that things are going fine. What's the problem with this picture?

I'm irritated by the fact that none of the people making the decisions and doing the research ever travel the road. The people that drive the road know the road; they can see what the problems are. Charts, graphs, and tables don't tell the entire story.

The good news is that the City of Brentwood allocated 1.5 million dollars to the County for immediate safety improvements to Vasco Road. The bad news is that the County has been waffling, in our opinion. In particular, we are not satisfied with the results of a study that Nolte Associates, Inc. conducted and, in our opinion, completely mismanaged.

Someone told me once that the County has a reputation for conducting studies as an alternative to actually taking actions on important issues. I can see how they get that reputation.

In the current situation the County report provides an excuse for inaction by basing all their computations on CalTrans' lofty standards, even though Vasco Road is not a State road. The report made Brentwood's 1.5 million dollar offer of help seem paltry when compared with an estimated 94 million dollar outlay the report said was required to put barriers between the traffic lanes.

From the beginning we've been advocating these traffic barriers to go between the lanes of traffic and keep them separate. This is the only practical way of preventing speeding or inattentive drivers from turning or drifting into oncoming traffic. Instead of helping us figure out a practical way of doing this, the Nolte study seemed to be created for the purpose of discouraging us from making this change.

For example, the study provided a "long list" of 22 possible safety improvements, and relegated safety barriers to the final two points — numbers 21 and 22.

The Nolte report, for example, said that installing a divider to the CalTrans standard requires five feet of clearance on both sides between the barrier and the lanes of traffic (which they called "traveled ways"). The effect of this standard is to require a minimum 52 feet of roadway section, as opposed to our existing 40 feet of roadway.

Basing the report on CalTrans standards effectively means that the median barriers will never be installed. As a sop, the report recommended spending $786,000 for Passing Lane Ahead signs, and Do Not Pass signs, as well as fully detailed rumble strips on the center and the sides.

Pushing the Barrier
The Council is being asked to allocate the funds from Brentwood to pay for the proposed rumble strips. We're not opposed to rumble strips, but believe that the rumble strips must be included as part of a more comprehensive effort. They will help drivers who are tired or inattentive, but will not stop illegal passing. Also, rumble strips would not have stopped the trailer that broke away from its hitch, crossed the centerline, and killed my friend, Tricia.

We make the argument that Highway 17, which is the highway going over the mountains into Santa Cruz, has concrete barriers that were not constructed to CalTrans standards.

The County maintains that they could do that with a four-lane highway more easily than we can with our two-lane road, because the extra two lanes make it more feasible for emergency vehicles to pass. The current break-down lanes on Vasco have only four-inches of surface material with no reinforced base and would be unable to maintain the weight of the emergency vehicles.

However, we contend that if there is an emergency on 580, for example, traffic can and does move over or pass on the breakdown lanes and the emergency vehicles can use the roadway. We could do that with our one lane – move the traffic over to the breakdown lane, or even onto the shoulder, and let the emergency vehicles pass on the traffic lanes.

Fire companies in other places are accustomed to making traffic breaks in the opposite lane and using that as a means of getting to an accident scene. Traffic breaks are, of course, inconvenient. However, the presence of the barrier that necessitates the break, in that case, greatly increases the chances of a crash victim still being alive when the rescue workers finally get to the scene.

Putting a cross-over break in the barrier ever two miles would minimize the amount of road that had to be shut down, and, as a result, the duration of the closure.

Also, the unwillingness of the County study to consider anything but the expensive CalTrans standards prevented them from looking at alternative barriers. Some of these less-expensive options include such things as sand-filled and water-filled barriers, which might be purchased for a fraction of the cost of the standard concrete ones.

We even learned of a prototype barrier that was much narrower — which the experts call "vertical delineators" — but still would resist being sheered off. In particular, I don't understand why the study couldn't have considered a simple metal rail. Those things must be cheap and effective. But the County study wouldn't consider such alternatives because they aren't CalTrans standards. There might even be Federally approved standard barriers available at less cost, but nobody is checking into that.

Let's Make it Happen
We're frustrated that the County is in the position of leading this effort without providing effective leadership. The Nolte people seemingly can't see outside the box. We need creative, workable solutions. We need people to be figure out what we actually can do and how we can do it.

The amount required to put the most expensive barriers down the entire length of the road is impossible, so let's find a way at least to put inexpensive barriers in the hot-spots. Let's stop the cross-overs to the extent we can.

Let's make this a road that is safe as possible as soon as possible so that people can go to work, come home, go to their family, have dinner. Let's cut out the awful news stories that talk about someone being involved in a head-on accident and is dead or seriously injured.

Nolte's study contained a graphic showing the potential effects of a barrier on Vasco Road over the past seven years. According to the graph installing concrete barriers on all three segments would have played a role in six out of the seven fatal accidents during that period of time.

One of the fatal accidents the barriers would surely have prevented was the one that resulted in Tricia's death. If only we could go back in time and do last year what Jeff and I are hoping can be done next year, dear Traci would still be with us.

This is what we need to do. Now is the time we need to do it.

You Can Get Involved
A lot of us are upset by the Vasco Road problem. There are some specific things that all of you reading this article can do.

• When you see foolhardy driving on Vasco Road you can report this directly to the CHP. I have the number programmed into my phone book. 707-551-4100.
• Contact the County with suggestions and complaints.
• Link to our website — www.vascoroad.com.
• Contact me (925-519-0930).

I don't care if a thousand of you contact me. I don't know what the County does with complaints. I know that I'll do something. I'll tabulate, report, and respond in every way possible.

The best thing you can do is to drive the speed limit yourself. Drive defensively! Don't imagine that what happened to Patricia Altman, on August 10, won't happen to you.