Nevada

[pderocco]

I've only been through there five times since they finished I-580, but between that and looking at aerial images, I don't see why it's a dangerous intersection. What is the primary mode of these accidents?

The most common is drivers coming down the hill on eastbound US 50 too fast.

The worst fatal accident involved somebody towing a boat down from Lake Tahoe.  The weight of the boat far exceeded the towing capacity of the pickup the guy was using to tow it.  His brakes failed, he bypassed the runaway truck ramp that's there for that exact situation, and ran the red light, killing two people in one of the vehicles he smashed into.  He got a prison sentence of (I think) 2 to 5 years for involuntary manslaughter.

Allegedly the dump truck that crashed yesterday also had brake failure.  Again, the driver bypassed the runaway truck ramp.  I saw one report that the dump truck was in the left lane and couldn't get to the ramp because of cars in the right lane, but that's just hearsay.  I suspect a lot of drivers avoid ramps like that if they think "I should be able to stop", because they will sink into the deep gravel and it's an expensive tow out of there.

In the one last week, it was a semi towing a couple of trailers loaded with cement, trying to make the left turn from eastbound 50 on to South Carson Street (Business US 395) too fast.  That one took down one of the signal pole structures as the wrecked cab and trailers came to rest over near the eagle sculpture.

You mentioned a SPUI. I hope that's on the N/S alignment connecting US-395 to US-395-BL, so that US-50 can be free flowing. Otherwise, it wouldn't solve the problem.

[gonealookin]

I've only been through there five times since they finished I-580, but between that and looking at aerial images, I don't see why it's a dangerous intersection. What is the primary mode of these accidents?

The most common is drivers coming down the hill on eastbound US 50 too fast.

The worst fatal accident involved somebody towing a boat down from Lake Tahoe.  The weight of the boat far exceeded the towing capacity of the pickup the guy was using to tow it.  His brakes failed, he bypassed the runaway truck ramp that's there for that exact situation, and ran the red light, killing two people in one of the vehicles he smashed into.  He got a prison sentence of (I think) 2 to 5 years for involuntary manslaughter.

Allegedly the dump truck that crashed yesterday also had brake failure.  Again, the driver bypassed the runaway truck ramp.  I saw one report that the dump truck was in the left lane and couldn't get to the ramp because of cars in the right lane, but that's just hearsay.  I suspect a lot of drivers avoid ramps like that if they think "I should be able to stop", because they will sink into the deep gravel and it's an expensive tow out of there.

In the one last week, it was a semi towing a couple of trailers loaded with cement, trying to make the left turn from eastbound 50 on to South Carson Street (Business US 395) too fast.  That one took down one of the signal pole structures as the wrecked cab and trailers came to rest over near the eagle sculpture.

You mentioned a SPUI. I hope that's on the N/S alignment connecting US-395 to US-395-BL, so that US-50 can be free flowing. Otherwise, it wouldn't solve the problem.

Traffic coming down the hill on eastbound US 50, and coming off I-580 and heading up toward Tahoe, is supposed to cross over US 395/South Carson Street on the overpass.

The shortcoming of that design is that it still leaves backups for traffic coming off southbound I-580 and making the turn on to southbound US 395 toward Minden, the worst current backups at that intersection by my observation.  I do think that's the best we can hope for though.  There was recently an updated local transportation report discussing options for upgrading US 395 between that intersection and Minden to full freeway.  It would be stupendously expensive to do that from the I-580/US 50/US 395 junction to south of Jacks Valley Road, a distance of maybe a bit more than a mile, because of all the local connections that would be required.  That area is the major shopping area for Carson City and Douglas County, with a Costco, a Walmart center, a Target/Home Depot center and another big box center (main anchor Best Buy, although I want to say the In-N-Out in there attracts the most traffic) all situated on the west side of 395.  So I expect that stretch to remain a six-lane boulevard with signals pretty much forever.

I do think US 395 will be upgraded to full freeway from south of Jacks Valley Road to Minden in the next 20 to 30 years.  There's plenty of space as the freeway frontage is all agricultural, no commercial, so that's a matter of a bit of additional right-of-way acquisition and constructing several grade-separated interchanges.

Edit to add the source for the comment about the cost of the freeway upgrading and a quote:

Douglas County Record-Courier article 7/11/26

A proposal to widen Highway 395 from Jacks Valley Road south to Highway 88 to a four-lane freeway with frontage roads would cost $138.5 million. Widening 395 from Jacks Valley Road north to the Carson City line could cost upward of $130 million...

[pderocco]

Another short term improvement might be to add a runaway truck ramp maybe three quarters of a mile before the existing one. If you're careening down the hill unable to stop, you might miss the first one, and say "Oh shit, I should have taken that ramp, now I'm screwed," and then get a second chance.

[gonealookin]

Another short term improvement might be to add a runaway truck ramp maybe three quarters of a mile before the existing one. If you're careening down the hill unable to stop, you might miss the first one, and say "Oh shit, I should have taken that ramp, now I'm screwed," and then get a second chance.

There's a big dropoff from the right side of modern US 50 to Old Clear Creek Road (original US 50 alignment, much lower in the canyon) for the last 3 miles or so before that last runaway truck ramp.  It's a good idea but not realistically practical.