Photo by Jennifer
Matthews-Howell/News-Sentinel
Law
enforcement officials supervise the removal of a van Thursday
from the Sacramento River near Clarksburg. The van matches the
description of the vehicle owned by a missing Galt family. Two
bodies were recovered from the van. A third body was found
nearby in the river. | Guardrails
planned along river roads
Ross
Farrow/News-Sentinel staff writer
The
California Department of Transportation plans an extensive guardrail
project to protect drivers along Highway 160, though other roads
along the snaking Sacramento River may be left without such
barriers.
Bodies presumed to be those of Galt resident Annie
Marie Hernandez and one of her two daughters were found Thursday
morning in a van that had been submerged in the river south of
Clarksburg. A third body presumed to be a second daughter was found
in the river Thursday night.
Officials do not yet know how
the van got into the river. But this much is known: There was no
guardrail to help keep the vehicle on the roadway and out of the
water.
Some say such rails are essential to preventing
accidents and saving lives.
“If they don’t put in guardrails,
it will be guarded by memorials,” said Lee Williams, Hernandez’s
long-time friend who scanned the river and adjacent roadways looking
for the van in January. “I’ve seen enough of them during my
searches.”
Guardrails will be installed on 22.6 miles of the
narrow, twisty state Highway 160 from Courtland to an area midway
between Rio Vista and Antioch, Caltrans spokesman Mark Dinger said.
The state will also build pullouts for fishermen who currently park
in the roadway.
Construction on the $2.1 million project is
expected to begin next spring.
Without protection from the
guardrails, one false move and a driver can end up in the Sacramento
River.
The guardrail will not be continuous because parts of
Highway 160 are not along the river, Dinger said.
The project
is several miles south of the Clarksburg area where the van owned by
Galt resident Annie Hernandez was found. Officials do not know if
the van entered the water from Highway 160 or from a
county-maintained road across the river.
Dinger said he
didn’t have current statistics, but Highway 160 had 49 accidents
south of Courtland between January 1995 and January 1997. Six of the
49 accidents were fatalities, while 38 others were injury crashes,
Dinger said. Not all the accidents involved cars going into the
river, he said.
“It’s substantially above the state average
for similar highways,” Dinger said.
The Caltrans project may
make life safer for motorists on Highway 160 next year, but it won’t
help people driving county roads running parallel to the state
highway. The parallel roadways are owned by Sacramento, Yolo and
Solano counties. It is unclear when — or if —money will become
available to place guardrails along those roads.
A
multi-agency organization called the Delta Levee Task Force studies
traffic issues on levee roads, including Highway 160, said Pat
Braziel, administrative assistant for Sacramento County Supervisor
Don Nottoli, whose district includes the Delta.
Cyrus Abhar,
who heads the task force, was unavailable for comment late
Thursday.
Bodies
identified as missing Galt mother, 2 daughters
Chronology
of Hernandez family disappearance
Comments about this
story? Send mail to Ross
Farrow
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