Motorcyclist dies in hit-and-run crash on Sacramento road that’s seen 15 fatal collisions
A 38-year-old motorcyclist died in a hit-and-run crash in the Robla section of Sacramento on Saturday night.
Officers responded around 9:19 p.m. to the intersection of Ephesus Avenue and Rio Linda Boulevard, just north of Interstate 80, and found a severely injured man, who later died in a hospital.
The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office had not yet released the victim’s name. He was 38.
The Sacramento Police Department is investigating the circumstances of the hit-and-run, but no suspects have been named. Any witnesses are encouraged to call the dispatch center at 916-808-5471.
The city of Sacramento has identified most of Rio Linda Boulevard as part of the “high-injury network,” although the motorcyclist was hit at an intersection that lies outside the designated network. The thoroughfare is considered particularly dangerous between the northern city limit and Del Paso Road, and then again south of I-80 until the street ends at Del Paso Boulevard. In a 2023 report, the city said it had secured funding for improvements at three intersections on Rio Linda, including one intersection near the site of the 2017 crash.
UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System shows a fatal single-vehicle crash happened in 2017 on a curve that lies a quarter-mile south of Saturday night’s hit-and-run. In 2021, a driver making a U-turn on Rio Linda Boulevard and Ephesus Avenue severely injured a motorcyclist.
Additionally, four separate fatal crashes happened within one 1,000-foot section of Rio Linda Boulevard about two miles north of the Saturday wreck.
In total, the Transportation Injury Mapping System says that between 2012 and the end of 2022, there were 15 fatal crashes on Rio Linda Boulevard.
In January 2017, Sacramento announced a “Vision Zero” pledge to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries in the city by 2027. Other cities, such as Oslo, Norway, and Hoboken, New Jersey, have demonstrated that the vast majority of traffic deaths are preventable. In January, Hoboken announced it had gone seven years without a fatal traffic crash.
Although the California capital has made some progress in implementing safety measures, the city struggles to fund safety-enhancing projects and remains far from stopping the deaths. At least four pedestrians and cyclists died on Sacramento streets in the first 26 days of 2024.
This story was originally published March 9, 2024 at 9:00 PM.
