Sacramento pushes a more urgent fix for dangerous road after six deaths
Sacramento’s plans to reshape a deadly one-mile stretch of Marysville Boulevard could be fast-tracked with a cheaper, temporary version to keep road users safer as the city waits for full construction funding.
The Department of Public Works will present a “quick-build” interim version of its long-term plan to improve safety on the road between Arcade Boulevard and North Avenue at the public Active Transportation Commission meeting Thursday evening. The plan for the roadway that stretches across the Hagginwood and Del Paso Heights neighborhoods of North Sacramento will later go before the City Council for approval.
Officials have identified Marysville as one of the five most dangerous corridors in Sacramento, and a Sacramento Bee review shows at least six people have died on the road since 2017. The larger, permanent project to improve it would cost an estimated $18 million.
“Since complete construction funding for the ultimate Marysville Boulevard Vision Zero Project will not be available for several years and there is a need to address immediate safety concerns, the city will phase the project into two construction packages,” staff wrote in an analysis for the commission. The first $1.4 million phase — cheaper, faster and smaller — will focus on a stretch between Nogales Street and Grand Avenue that is about a third of a mile long.
That smaller element will be funded by the city’s Quick-Build Safety Program, which was approved this year to respond to rising concerns about the rising number of traffic deaths and the slow pace of progress on road safety in Sacramento.
Who has died on Marysville Boulevard?
UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System shows 20 severe crashes on the total 1-mile stretch of Marysville since 2017, the year that Sacramento pledged it would eliminate such crashes by 2027. At least six people died: Alfred Ramirez, 23, a driver who was killed last year in a crash at North Avenue; Darien Marcelle Demery, 24, a young father who was killed in 2023 in a single-vehicle suspected DUI crash that also severely injured the driver, his brother, at Los Robles Boulevard; Jolene Kral, 60, a pedestrian killed at Los Robles Boulevard; Lawrence Matthews, 52, a cyclist fatally struck just south of Los Robles; Ronald Johnson, 62, a pedestrian fatally struck just north of Roanoke Avenue; as well as a 56-year-old male cyclist killed in the summer of 2018 close to Ermina Drive.
Among the 14 other serious Marysville Boulevard collisions, 10 of them left 11 pedestrians or cyclists with severe injuries. The injuries may have been life-altering or even, ultimately, fatal. Two of the pedestrian victims on Marysville were children: a 17-year-old girl was severely injured this year, and a 14-year-old girl suffered severe injuries in 2017.
Across the capital city, more than 300 people have died in the eight and a half years since the city set a Vision Zero goal to eliminate traffic deaths. At least 23 people have died in collisions in 2025, 16 of whom were pedestrians or cyclists.
The Department of Public Works has proposed bike lane improvements and a road diet that would take a lane on each side away from vehicles, among other changes.
Speed plays a major role in crash survival rates
Road diets have been shown to coax or force slower speeds. A driver’s speed is a critical factor in the outcome of a crash: The U.S. Department of Transportation says that if a driver traveling 23 mph strikes a pedestrian, the person on foot has a 90% chance of survival, but if a driver traveling just 32 mph strikes a pedestrian, the survival rate drops to 75%, with one in four victims dying. When a driver strikes a pedestrian at 42 mph, the risk that the pedestrian will die is 50% — a coin toss.
Megan Carter, the city’s traffic engineer and Public Works’ transportation division manager, previously said that with the quick-build program, the department could act with greater urgency to address Sacramento’s road safety crisis. Many safety projects take years — sometimes decades — to get fully funded from planning through construction, a process that leaves residents in danger in the interim.
“The methodology of the past wasn’t working,” Carter said.
A six-person Transportation Safety Team was approved by the City Council in March on the heels of a Bee project documenting 32 people who died on Sacramento streets in 2024, most of them on streets the city had already identified as dangerous. The team will focus on a mix of smaller, more targeted interventions and larger projects such as the third-of-a-mile installation on Marysville. The department has had a full greenlight for the new staff to begin work as of July 1, but the first hire has not yet been made.
A job posting for the supervising engineer position will go up this Saturday, said Gabby Miller, a city spokesperson. Once that position is filled, the supervising engineer will “lead the effort to build out the rest of the team.” Staff are also working on a request for proposals to line up on-call construction contractors who can install smaller-scale interventions, she said.
Although the team is not yet staffed, under Carter’s leadership, the department has still forged ahead with some quick-build projects.
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
