“McBean Freeway” remains a concern for deputies

A blue truck drives past the spot in the far right lane of southbound McBean Parkway just south of Decoro Drive where a BMW hit at Honda head-on in a fatal car crash in July 2017. Katharine Lotze/The Signal
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Four days after two local men lost their lives in a head-on crash on McBean Parkway in Valencia, a three-car crash occurred on the same stretch of road.

On Saturday, at least one of the people involved in a three-car traffic collision in the northbound lanes of McBean Parkway, south of Decoro Drive and north of Fairview Drive, was injured and taken to the hospital.

The crash happened on the same stretch of road which on July 4 claimed the lives of 18-year-old Hart High School grad Collin Charles Gore and 34-year-old Joel Thomas Godfrey, both of Santa Clarita.

Saturday’s crash happened shortly before 1 p.m., according to a spokesman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

“This call came in as a three vehicles involved,” the Fire Department spokesman said.

Paramedics were dispatched to the crash at 12:54 p.m. and arrived there at 1 p.m., he said.

“There was a request for an ambulance,” the spokesman said.

The stretch of road was referred to one Valencia resident posting notices on the Next-door Neighbor Internet app as: “McBean Freeway.”

The stretch of road continues to be a source of concern for deputies of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, Sheriff’s spokeswoman Shirley Miller told The Signal Monday.

“I did confirm (with traffic deputies) that has been an area of concern that they routinely monitor,” she said.

Since the double fatal crash on July 4, motorcycle deputies have been seen each work day monitoring the speed of motorists travelling southbound on McBean Parkway as they approach Decoro.

On at least two occasions motorists were seen to have been pulled over by motorcycle deputies on the south side of Decoro.

Asked if the seemingly stepped-up presence of speed-monitoring deputies was in response to the double fatal crash, Miller said “no.”

“They monitor that area routinely and not just since the (double fatal) crash,” she said.

A traffic investigator told The Signal last week that he is probing the circumstances surrounding a fatal crash in Valencia that claimed the lives of two local men on July 4.

“Speed is the primary factor in this crash,” Traffic Investigator Det. Jeff Maag, of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff Station’s Traffic Section told The Signal Wednesday.

About 10 minutes after midnight, into the early morning hours of Tuesday, at 12:10 a.m., two cars collided at the intersection of McBean Parkway and Decoro Drive.

Gore was driving a Honda Accord and Godfrey, a white BMW sedan.

“The primary focus of the investigation is the speed of the BMW,” Maag said Wednesday.

Initial reports indicated the BMW was traveling northbound on McBean at a high rate of speed, lost control, clipped what investigators believe was a tree and careened into oncoming traffic.

The BMW slammed head-on into the Honda Accord.

 

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