Wolk honored for work to improve safety on Blood Alley

Community honors Wolk for “tireless work” to improve safety on Highway 12

SACRAMENTO–The Highway 12 Association honored Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) late last week for her “tireless work” to develop a Highway 12 safety package with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and California Highway Patrol (CHP) and authoring legislation to establish a safety enhancement double fine zone on a dangerous stretch of State Highway Route 12 that has claimed seven lives so far this year.

“She made a commitment to the people of our area that she would do what she could to make Highway 12 safer,” said Rio Vista Mayor Eddie Woodruff, a member of the coalition of local residents, elected officials, law enforcement, and transportation officials. “I think how often it must have been tempting to give it up. But she didn’t.  She kept pushing forward. She made a commitment and she stood by it.”

Wolk’s AB 112 establishes a safety enhancement double fine zone on Highway 12 between Interstate 80 to Interstate 5where base fines can be doubled for traffic violations such as speeding, reckless driving, and drunken driving. The bill, signed early this month by the Governor, also streamlines the process for designating dangerous highways throughout the state as double fine zones. 

AB 112 was part of a Highway 12 Safety Package that includes increased CHP enforcement, a public awareness campaign, and more than $46 million in Caltrans safety enhancements, expedited by more than two years, which include concrete medians, lane separators, rumble strips, and no passing zones. Together with double fine zones, these safety measures have been shown to reduce the number of accidents resulting in fatalities and injuries.