More Signs Go Up in Wake of Freeway Pedestrian Deaths

State transportation officials have installed new warning signs along Interstate 5 in North San Diego County alerting motorists that undocumented pedestrians may be crossing the freeway.

The signs, posted in northbound and southbound directions and written in black letters with yellow reflecting backgrounds, designate a “pedestrian accident area” along an 8-mile stretch of I-5, north of Oceanside between Las Pulgas Road and Basilone Road. Previously installed flashing yellow lights and signs already alert motorists to the danger, but many drivers say they hardly notice the warning devices.

In the past 3 1/2 years, authorities say, 33 undocumented immigrants have been struck by vehicles and killed while attempting the cross I-5 in the area, mostly within the hazardous 8-mile stretch just south of the Orange County line. Ten have been killed this year alone.

The victims, authorities say, were attempting to hike around the U.S. immigration checkpoint north of Oceanside. It is a hazardous trek that may involve multiple crossings of 8 lanes of extremely fast-moving traffic, often at night.

The carnage is even more pronounced in the immediate border area of San Diego, where a number of freeways converge at major undocumented crossing routes. In that area, officials say, more than 100 undocumented pedestrians have been killed during the past five years while crossing high-speed roadways.

The California Department of Transportation has been criticized by advocates who say that more should be done to reduce the hazard. Transportation officials note that they have taken considerable action, including the posting of signs and the trimming of freeway-area brush that provides cover for illicit border-crossers en route north. But the death toll continues to mount.

More steps are planned, Caltrans officials say. Authorities have printed 50,000 handouts warning immigrants in Spanish of the dangers of negotiating the freeways on foot. The fliers are to be distributed at immigrant gathering points in San Diego and Orange counties and in Tijuana, officials said.