Horace McKenna Documentary Recently Released

The story of the 1989 murder of Horace McKenna at his Carbon Canyon ranch property and which was the subject of an early post on this blog is now a 45-minute documentary on the Oxygen channel: https://www.oxygen.com/.../epis.../the-king-of-orange-county.

On the Skids in Carbon Canyon: Flattening on the Curve

A rare post last week which discussed the introduction of new speed limits on the Orange County portion of Carbon Canyon Road (State Route 142), generated a comment left on the Chronicle Facebook page: "Signs signs everywhere the signs . Signs don’t work . People do 70 passing me westbound by the park every morning . I drive it at 5:45 am every morning. Thanks for trying I guess!"

While the "On the Skids in Carbon Canyon" series tried over about a decade or so to bring some form of attention to the regular occurrences of dangerous driving on the state highway, especially on weekend evenings, those have largely gone by the wayside as fundamentally nothing has changed and there are other priorities that have emerged, which is why posts here have been few in general recently.

It should be noted, though, that CalTrans can only improve state highways through such means as signage, striping, barriers, and others.  Patrolling is for other agencies to enact.  As dangerous driving continues, virtually daily (well, nightly, mostly), the only real and effective mitigation would be more of a physical presence.  Barring that, these accidents will continue to happen and it appears that calculating acceptable risk, along with weighing how to allocate existing funding and other factors, is what drives policy.

With this in mind, this post includes several photos taken on the Chino Hills side of the canyon from Old Carbon Canyon Road to the summit where accidents have occurred in recent weeks. The recent improvements done by CalTrans' district 8 with resurfacing, but also adding many safety elements like more and better secured guardrails, many more reflectors, new signs, improved striping and more, do not stop errant drivers from eviscerating reflectors, mowing down signs, flattening utility boxes, crushing guardrails and plowing into privately owned power poles, fences and walls, with these latter obviously having financial impacts on property owners who have no control over what happens when reckless drivers, knowing they have free reign, race through the canyon. 

So, there are plenty of people out there like the Facebook commenter who experience first-hand just how much dangerous driving there is on Carbon Canyon Road and the photos here show what at least some of the consequences are, though the risk of getting hit by reckless driver is one those of us who use the highway regularly face and deal with.

Carbon Canyon Road Speed Limit Changes

Sorry for the long delay between posts and this is not exactly the latest news, but, about two weeks ago, the speed limit in the Orange County/Brea portion of Carbon Canyon Road (State Route 142) was changed.  Here is what is noticed with the new progressive limits:

Westbound

County line to near the old Manely Friends stables:                            40mph

From Manely Friends to former La Vida Mineral Springs resort:       45mph

From La Vida to Valencia Avenue:                                                       50mph

Eastbound

Valencia Avenue to near Manely Friends:                                            50mph

Manely Friends to west of Sleepy Hollow:                                           45mph

From west of Sleepy Hollow to county line:                                         40mph

It should be added that, so far as this blogger knows, there have been no changes on the San Bernardino County/Chino Hills side (Eastbound: 35 through Sleepy Hollow, 45 from there to just past Fairway Drive/Ginseng Lane, 40 through the S-curves [though no one can actually drive that speed through virtually all that section] and then 45 from past Old Carbon Canyon Road to Chino Hills Parkway; westbound: 50 from Chino Hills Parkway to approaching Summit Ranch, 45 to just before Old Carbon Canyon Road, 40 through the S-curves to Fairway Drive/Ginseng Lane, 45 to just before Sleepy Hollow, 35 to the county line)

There are two CalTrans districts operating within the Canyon and it was District 12 that made the decision to revise limits on the Orange County side, while District 8 handles the San Bernardino County portion.  Why the change was made, especially to increase from 45 to 50 eastbound from Valencia, is not known.  Vehicles, when the road is clear, generally fly downgrade from Valencia and it is surprising the limit is not lower when approaching and passing through Olinda Village.  The higher limit through sections with some strong curves through the canyon is also somewhat eye-opening.  We'll see if more accidents result from the change, though some people drive way beyond these limits anyway.