Eight now dead in a string of fatal car crashes on Sacramento’s Roseville Road
Eight men have now died in five crashes on a 1.8-mile segment of Roseville Road since January 2024, making the area one of the deadliest in the California capital.
The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office said that on Friday, a crash at Roseville and Tri Stations roads left Salvador Rodriguez Tafoya, 47, and Javier Rebolledo Gomez, 27, dead. The Sacramento Police Department said that the two men were traveling in the same vehicle when they collided with a second vehicle.
Most of the 1.8-mile segment is made up of two lanes running through an industrial area with narrow shoulders, no sidewalks and a posted speed limit of 50 mph. The lanes generally form a straightaway, allowing drivers to pick up speed with few reasons to stop or to slow down.
For years, the city has flagged Roseville Road as dangerous. Much of this stretch of the road is considered part of the Sacramento’s “high-injury network” — the collection of city streets that are considered the most dangerous. The most recent analysis published by the Department of Public Works showed that 73% of fatal and serious injury crashes occur on the network, despite those roadways making up only 14% of streets in the city.
The vast majority of deadly collisions are preventable with changes to infrastructure. With that in mind, Sacramento’s City Council made a “Vision Zero” pledge to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2027. Progress toward that goal has been slow, and at least 26 people have died in collisions on city streets this year.
In line with Vision Zero, the Transportation Priorities Plan contains an infrastructure solution to modify Roseville Road in order to slow traffic down, which would reduce the severity of crashes. The plan would add sidewalks and a physically separated bike path that would connect travelers to the light rail station.
With a huge backlog of transportation projects, however, the city considers that a low priority. Gabby Miller, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Works, said that a quick-build improvement is being planned at the intersection of Roseville Road and Connie Drive, a Y-shaped crossroads where one of the five fatal collisions this year occurred. The quick-build would improve the visibility of the raised median at Roseville and Connie. She said the city is also planning a second project to install and improve the barriers along those two roadways.
As residents await infrastructure change, the last two and a half years have seen a string of fatal crashes.
Who has died on Roseville Road?
Three young men from the same family died while driving just northeast of the same intersection in a crash last summer: Mohammad Shaoib Durrani, 22, Omar Durrani, 25; and Hashmatullah Durrani, 24. Forrest Murray Coss, 70, was riding a motorcycle when he died in a crash at Roseville Road and Connie Drive in April, about a mile southwest of the intersection with Tri Stations Road.
In 2024, Michael J. Kennedy, a driver, died in a crash at Roseville Road and Marconi Circle, which is just southwest of Connie Drive. Jonathon T. Slough, 62, is the only pedestrian in the group: He died a little farther northeast on Roseville while walking near the light rail station.
In January 2025, Wendy Connell, 55, was riding her bike to a dental appointment when a truck driver ran her over just north of Sacramento city limits, where the posted speed limit is 50 mph. That day, the grandmother had decided to bike northeast on Roseville rather than walking southeast to catch the light rail because there was no sidewalk for her to access the Regional Transit station, her husband told The Sacramento Bee shortly after her death.
