Calaveras County unveils District 5 safety plan, cites speeding, intersections and lighting as top concerns

Calaveras County on Tuesday held the first District 5 community meeting for a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, presenting a five-year collision analysis and seeking public input on high-injury corridors and proposed countermeasures.

The plan, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program, aims "to eliminate all traffic related fatalities and serious injuries," project manager Rutha Charibala said. The county analyzed collisions on county-maintained roads from January 2020 through December 2024 and focused the plan on fatal and severe-injury collisions, commonly abbreviated in the presentation as KSI (killed or severe injuries).

County staff and the project team presented the data that will drive the plan. The county recorded 356 total injury collisions on county-maintained roads in the five-year period; 96 of those were fatal or severe. The analysis found that 71 percent of KSI collisions occurred on roadway segments rather than intersections, that weekends and the summer months (June–August) show higher collision counts, and that passenger cars…