A drive Sunday night along California State Route 67 in San Diego County spelled disaster for one individual and his beloved custom hot rod in Lakeside, California. Reported just before 9 p.m., the 48-year-old El Cajon, California, man was pronounced dead at the scene. California Highway Patrol Officers reported that the vehicle was not equipped with seat belts, which most likely led to the driver’s ejection from the vehicle upon impact.
Reported on NBC San Diego, there isn’t much information regarding details about the crash other than surmising that the 1932 Ford Roadster veered off the highway, down an embankment, and through a chain-linked fence before colliding into a wooden post.
With no word on what caused the crash, we want to dive into the no seatbelt law and other accident reports along State Route 67. Seatbelts are required on state highways by law in California.
You don’t have to have seat belts if the car wasn’t equipped with them except on the highway. San Diego’s Highway 67 is no stranger to automobile accidents despite its preventative efforts.
According to Etsey Bomberger, the 25-mile highway that stretches from El Cajon to Mount Woodson is narrow and packed with steep inclines, twists, and blind turns. Nicknamed by some as “Blood Alley” or “Slaughterhouse Canyon Road”, California State Route 67 has a dangerous 12-mile stretch from Lakeside north to Ramona.
State Route 67 was never truly meant to be a freeway yet it’s used everyday by thousands of vehicles, including large commercial trucks. An accident occurred on March 17, 2015, when a motorcycle and a big rig collided at the intersection of State Route 67 and Slaughterhouse Canyon Road, resulting in serious injuries to the motorcycle rider.
On September 19, 2014, a 23-year-old Ramona man was killed trying to assist victims of a two car crash on Highway 67 in Santee near State Route 52. With several fatalities occurring on this deadly stretch of road, CHP has even made the effort to raise awareness about California State Route 67, which resulted in Caltrans launching the “Take Care Getting There” campaign in 2007 to improve the safety of State Route 67.
However, with increased CHP enforcement along State Route 67, the $2.6 million project’s funds were all but liquidated by 2010. Now monitored with less frequency, State Route 67 remains a dangerous road to traverse and now sees even more traffic congestion.
The site of several head-on collisions and motorcycle fatalities, California State Route 67 needs more public visibility for all of Southern California to realize how dangerous this road truly is. A seat belt may seem like nothing, but without it, it is a matter of life or death.
You might also like
Larry Helm’s Custom 1959 Chevrolet Apache At NSRA’s Street Rod Nats
We spotted Larry Helm's custom 1959 Chevrolet Apache at the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky this summer. It was worth another look.
