Quick Take
The Community Traffic Safety Coalition’s crash report from September shows that deaths and serious injuries on the road have decreased in recent years, although the problem remains serious overall.
The Community Traffic Safety Coalition’s annual crash report released in September shows that deaths and serious injuries in Santa Cruz County have generally declined in recent years, but remain a significant problem on local roads, particularly for bicyclists.
The coalition used 2023 data from the California Office of Traffic Safety, the most recent available numbers, as did law firm Maison Law in its analysis that ranked Santa Cruz the sixth-most-dangerous city for cyclists in the state. But the coalition’s report incorporates additional, more recent California Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) data from 2024 and 2025, which add more to the picture.
The TIMS data shows that from 2016 through 2025, Santa Cruz County roadways recorded 1,444 serious injuries and 217 deaths. That’s an average of about three people killed or seriously injured each week. Additionally, the danger to pedestrians and cyclists is evident and disproportionate. In 2022, those demographics represent about 36% of people killed or seriously injured in the county, even though they accounted for only around 11% of all trips.
In total, 21% of crashes that resulted in deaths or serious injuries during the observed decade were due to driving or cycling under the influence, 19% were due to unsafe speed, another 19% were due to improper turning, and 10% were due to vehicle right-of-way.
While bicycle and pedestrian crashes have remained high, there has been some improvement throughout the county in recent years. Cyclist deaths and serious injuries reached a high point in 2022, when there were 44 such accidents throughout the county, but that fell to 26 in 2023. There were a few more in 2024, with 29, but 2025 saw just 26 once again.
For pedestrians, the peak came in 2018, when there were 39 fatal or serious injury crashes. That figure fell into the 20s until 2022, when it reached 33. Since then, the number has fallen again, with 19 in 2023, 26 in 2024, and 17 in 2025.
In a city-by-city breakdown, Santa Cruz and the unincorporated parts of the county most often had the highest rates of deaths and serious injuries for cyclists per 100,000 population, while Captiola had the highest single-year rate in 2025, with 43 per 100,000. However, the city’s figure varied heavily year over year, with as few as zero in some, and from 10 to 21 in others.
For pedestrians, Watsonville most often had the highest rates of deaths and serious injuries per 100,000 population, reaching as high as 21 and falling no lower than six. However, Capitola again had the highest single-year rate in 2025, with 32.
Although the numbers can be disconcerting, the report says that the coalition has worked to secure federal Safe Streets and Roads for All funding to create Vision Zero action plans, which seek to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
This May, Watsonville, Scotts Valley and unincorporated Santa Cruz County released the county safety action plan, including a Vision Zero plan for Scotts Valley and the unincorporated county and an update to the Watsonville plan.
Read the full report here.
Latest news
Here’s what’s happening this week on our roadways:
- Utility and shoulder work is shutting down one lane in various sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Those sections are between Camp Sycamore Road and Rincon Creek Bridge, Arrow Lane and Laurel Drive, Fall Creek Bridge and Fall Creek Road, Cascade Avenue and Irwin Way, Ramona Drive and Stapp Road, and El Solyo Heights Drive and Graham Hill/Bennett Street.
- The southbound Highway 1 off-ramp at Bay Avenue in Capitola is in the third month of a four-month closure that began Aug. 2, as crews reconstruct the ramp as part of the bus-on-shoulder facility.
- Roadway excavation is shutting down the southbound Highway 1 on-ramp at Park Avenue in Capitola until Nov. 19.
- Bridge work is currently shutting down alternating lanes of Highway 9 between Pool Drive and Old County Highway and Riverdale Park and Monaco Lane until April 30, 2027.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.
