[UPDATE 11:43 a.m.] Multiple Car Accident on 101 Just North of Eureka; Multiple Injuries

Traffic Collision Car AccidentHwy 101 shut down after a five vehicle accident near Murray Field just north of Eureka about 10:35 a.m. Traffic backed up into Eureka but began moving again just before 11 a.m. when one lane was opened up.

Multiple ambulances responded to the accident site. Four patients were taken to the hospital. Three with moderate injuries and one with minor injuries.

UPDATED With Photos by Mark McKenna at 11:23 a.m.:

McKenna said, “Open to one lane but still backed up to the bridge. People are trying to get around it by taking Jacobs.” However, McKenna said Jacobs isn’t working. There may have only been three vehicles. Wrecked car on Flatbed

Traffic accident
UPDATE 11:43 a.m.: According to an officer at the scene there were only two vehicles involved–one a pickup and one a car. One person was ejected from their vehicle. There were three people taken to the hospital.

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

25 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Local
Guest
Local
6 years ago

Im surprised that there are not more accidents in the safety corridor as the ridiculously slow speed limit seems to encourage agressive behavior

Plays in a freeway
Guest
Plays in a freeway
6 years ago
Reply to  Local

You should try standing in the safety corridor in front of one of the ridiculously slow speeds. Feels like nothing at all!

Honeydew Bridge C.H.U.M.P.
Guest
Honeydew Bridge C.H.U.M.P.
6 years ago
Reply to  Local

It was much better @ 65mph before the nonsense.

Removing that bike lane nobody uses, widening the road, and putting it back to 65 is what needs to happen.

You want to bike to Arcata? Take old Arcata Road- stay off the freeway.

Neo-Hippie libs have ruined everything.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

Everyone should just keep speeding and driving like the car is in control so that soon enough everyone’s driving privelidges will be taken away with self driving cars!! It’s all part of a big plan! Keep going against limits like ONLY YOU own the road and NOONE will own the road!!!

CnD
Guest
CnD
6 years ago

I see bikes and peds nearly every time I traverse 101 between Arcata and Eureka. Also, it’s not a freeway.

Fascist Trump Republicans are ruining everything.

Emily
Guest
Emily
6 years ago
Reply to  CnD

I agreed with you, until you started ripping on your president and fellow Americans.

Pooh daddy
Guest
Pooh daddy
6 years ago

I thought those who use the “lettuce” would be deemed by you too lazy to ride bikes.

Don't just drive: cruise.....
Guest
Don't just drive: cruise.....
6 years ago
Reply to  Local

Tis not the slow speed that encourages aggressive behaviour, but a suddenly “open” road after driving through Stop ‘n Go Eureka. Without the slower speeds, I’m sure there would be many more accidents, and much worse ones at that.

steve
Guest
steve
6 years ago

You are kind of right here there were a lot of crashing before the “Safety Corridor”.

Ernestine
Guest
Ernestine
6 years ago
Reply to  Local

I was recently thinking about the politics and possible cynicism that may have been involved in the safety corridor getting designated. Caltrans likes to build cloverleaves and other monstrosities preferably in wetlands. I wonder why, but I do not know. When the national speed limit went from 55 to whatever, someone at caltrans, (and it should be known who) decided that this stretch with multiple crossing streets was appropriate for 70MPH!!. after a bizillion people died in that forseeable catastrophe, we got a safety zone and soon the cloverleaves caltrans really wanted in 1972 are going to be built and all the cross streets will be closed. And local businesses will suffer, just ask willits.

Ro
Guest
Ro
6 years ago
Reply to  Local

What?!?
Are you aware that the sole purpose of the reduced speed limit is to allow the cross traffic to have time to maneuver SAFELY across the highway?
Four people died in an accident there, and a friend was in that accident. Only a short time of maybe 4 minutes more is lost to save lives.
The problem is the lack of warning signs of the approaching speed reduction. The signs AREN’T positioned far enough in advance, or repeated enough along the route.
In larger cities with similar crossings, the speed reduction is reinforced with flashing lights and notifications farther ahead.

Gypsy Rose
Guest
Gypsy Rose
6 years ago

Drive here in Sacramento and you would appreciate your slow traffic. You don’t need to be going any faster than your speed limit. Here people go 50 to 60 miles an hour and that’s in the residential areas, and you don’t even want to drive here on the freeways. You would go home kissing the speed limit signs. At least in a wreck in your area a person has a chance of living through it.

charles engebretson
Guest
charles engebretson
6 years ago

Righ on Gypsy.. This is just another car crash..so now liberals are responsible for speed limits and car crashes…wtf?

Trucker Don
Guest
Trucker Don
6 years ago

Seems like a [edit] is blaming President Trump AND the Republicans.
CnD I believe it was…crazy n disgruntled, well get over it the WORKING MAN WON and you [edit] lost, how about getting on with life now the election is over and you can’t change the results just because you don’t like them. [edit] !

Life is Good
Guest
Life is Good
6 years ago

Safety Corridor. Oxymoron.

anny
Guest
anny
6 years ago

Cell phones. High percentage of drivers on that stretch are on them.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
6 years ago
Reply to  anny

s/ on that stretch//

K
Guest
K
6 years ago

If I’m not mistaken, and I could be, the safety corridor was set because there were so many accidents and several deaths. The 65 speed limit wasn’t followed, and cars turning off couldn’t cross in time and nobody was willing to slow down – very dangerous. Are there any statistics out there to show that this has reduced accidents? Curious.

Sharpen your pencil
Guest
Sharpen your pencil
6 years ago
Reply to  K

Right, and we can’t do over passes there because they would ruin the view for all the idiots not focused on the road…..

steve
Guest
steve
6 years ago
Reply to  K

You are kind of right here there were a lot of crashing before the “Safety Corridor”.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
6 years ago
Reply to  K

No, there are no statistics out there saying it has reduced accidents. There are, however, statistics showing it has increased accidents, because that’s what actually happened. Caltrans even put out some shiny slides about it at some point. The severity of the accidents has been lowered (using the metric of fewer fatalities), but the total number of accidents has gone up.

Lowering speed limits to lower than what any normal person would drive on a road increases accidents, in a large part from all the normal people trying to pass the few people who drive slower and turn themselves into dangerous obstacles. In general, any time there’s an excessive distribution of speeds, accidents go way up. This is due to the dangers of lane changes, increased rear-end collisions by distracted drivers, etc.

So, lowering the speed made one problem worse. And it didn’t help anything. It was supposed to somehow magically help reduce the accidents at intersections, but this completely ignored that the accidents weren’t caused by the speed of the through traffic, but rather, like this accident, the failure to yield of the turning or crossing traffic. I once watched someone in a sedan get t-boned because they pulled out to cross at the south jacobs intersection (back before it was removed, pissing absolutely everyone off while accomplishing nothing) right in front of a semi, in broad daylight.

You are not mistaken in your remembering what happened, but you are mistaken in remembering why – it seems to mostly have been so caltrans could pretend they were doing something, but you can’t fix distracted, impaired, or bad drivers by lowering the speed limits. You can’t even fix them by building overpasses – even our sections of actual freeway have a lot more accidents than other similar areas. Why? Because our culture around here doesn’t seem to discourage driving while impaired, distracted, senile, or incompetent. Our cops hide behind onramps and write speeding tickets, while the accidents are caused by people whose behavior can’t be observed in the few seconds they pass in front of the cop.

The one thing lowering the speed limit did was decrease fatalities, simply by reducing the available energy in the collisions, even though there’s more collisions overall. Is this an improvement? That’s a difficult question. How many major injuries does it take to balance one fatality?

Also, to repeat, note that this accident once again had nothing to do with speed, and entirely to do with someone doing something fucking stupid. I can’t follow the defective logic that is causing commenters to blame the speed of the through traffic for the actions of the person crossing the traffic.

Trucker Don
Guest
Trucker Don
6 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Well then 80 or 90 mph limit should solve everything

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
6 years ago
Reply to  Trucker Don

Except that might also cause an excessive distribution of speeds, also raising accidents. In general, speed limits appropriate for the road design give the lowest accidents, and that’s a 65mph section of road. Were interchanges put in, it could be raised, but it would need to be part of a statewide increase, or again it’d likely raise the variation in speeds too much.

Some states have decided on widespread speed limit increases…

Bozo
Guest
Bozo
6 years ago

>”And local businesses will suffer, just ask willits.”

Well, Do you want ‘safe driving’…
… or…
do you want bogged down traffic by ‘businesses’ ?

Bigg Dogg
Guest
Bigg Dogg
6 years ago

The bypass in Willits is working except for the idiots who try to exit the freeway on the fast lane, guess that’s how these hillbillies drive, but mark my words there is going to be a bad accident there, but hey the hospital will be close by!