State Route 247 is one of the most dangerous roads in the Morongo Basin. Known locally as Old Woman Springs Road the two-lane highway serves as a major thoroughfare in the Morongo Basin connecting Twentynine Palms Highway with communities in Flamingo Heights, Landers, Johnson Valley and more.
The last decade has seen rising numbers of fatal collisions on the highway. California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Michael Radford and Traffic Officer Jake Griffith were guests on the Z107.7 Up Close Show last week, and host Gary Daigneault asked them,
“Is the problem because of long areas where there’s no passing and people get frustrated. Is that the primary cause for those problems?”
Officer Radford: “SR247 has been a problem for a long time, mostly because of long areas where there’s no passing and people get frustrated. Is that the primary cause for those problems?”
Officer Griffith said, “it was specifically during 2023, we had several fatalities on the 247 – head-on collisions – people that were just too in a hurry to obey the law and drive safe and passing in unsafe places. So yeah, on 247… I think this past year we haven’t seen as much of that, which is good. We’ve upped our enforcement there. And Caltrans seems to be making some adjustments to the road to try to make it safer.”
Officer Radford said “There have been some striping changes to add a little bit more areas of double yellow lines. However, without those barriers people think that it’s still safe. Their vision tricks them. They don’t see a rise in the road or a hill or a curve, and they think that they can pass safely. Then another vehicle coming towards them may be just coming over a hill. Unfortunately those major fatal crashes are happening because of that.”
Daigneault asked if the local CHP offices work with Caltrans.
“We had meetings with Caltrans and that’s above our pay grade, but yes, we’ve had several meetings with Caltrans about suggestions that we’ve made in the areas,” said Officer Radford.
So if someone feels an adjustment could be made, how can they alert the CHP or Caltrans or what would they take?
Officer Radford said, “we patrol the roads, but Caltrans is going to be the group that makes those changes. We can make recommendations, but they have engineers and teams that make those choices of where they are going to put dividers and widening lanes and all that kind of stuff. That’s engineering stuff that is not up to us necessarily.”
You can hear their full conversation by listening to the Z107.7 Up Close Show as a podcast or below:
