Residents Call Coastal Road a Deathtrap : Safety: Many drivers dispute Caltrans figures for the stretch of Ventura Freeway between La Conchita and Mussel Shoals.

The California Department of Transportation, citing statistics, regards the 1.4 miles of Ventura Freeway between La Conchita and Mussel Shoals as safer than comparable stretches in the state.

Residents of the tiny seaside communities in western Ventura County, citing near-misses and hair-raising escapes, see it as a potential deathtrap.

“I hate to think we have one of the state’s safer roads,” Hank Alviani of La Conchita said.

Caltrans figures for the past 10 years show that only four people have been killed in 159 accidents on the stretch of highway, a lower accident rate per 1 million vehicles than the state average.

But not reflected in the figures, residents say, are the close calls and chills provided by that little slice of freeway.

“It’s really scary,” said Jet Shaw, a waitress at a Mussel Shoals restaurant.

Ever since Gov. Jerry Brown killed funding for planned improvements in the mid-1970s, La Conchita and Mussel Shoals have remained frozen in time, the only beach towns in Southern California without freeway on- and off-ramps, Caltrans says.

The 1.4 miles are part of a unique 2.9-mile stretch that is troublesome to motorists and bicyclists. The last remaining gap in the Ventura Freeway between the Santa Barbara County line and Los Angeles, it is officially designated as an expressway, with only two lanes in each direction.

To leave La Conchita going south or to leave Mussel Shoals going north, motorists have to play cat-and-mouse with oncoming traffic, crossing two lanes and making a left turn onto the freeway without the benefit of traffic lights.

The dash across the freeway is most intimidating at Mussel Shoals because southbound traffic is barreling around a long downhill curve.

“They should call it ‘Dead Man’s Curve,’ ” said Jeff Jones of Studio City, who was visiting Mussel Shoals for the first time. “It’s amazing to me that this thing even exists in this day and age. I wouldn’t want to be dealing with it on a daily basis.”

Jet Shaw has to. “You’re just not used to waiting at the freeway and seeing traffic coming at you and then going past you at 70 m.p.h.,” she said. “A lot of elderly people won’t cross the freeway,” preferring to drive to the nearest overpass several miles away and come back the other way.

The intersections also can cause anxiety for freeway motorists who aren’t aware that cars shoot across the road, says Nicole Reyes, another Mussel Shoals waitress.

“The other day, this huge semi coming down the hill saw me waiting to go and started honking (its) horn,” she said. “Drivers just don’t have faith in what you’re doing there on the side of the road.”

Alviani and his wife, Clara, can look out their second-story picture window and watch freeway traffic only several yards away. He estimates he sees an accident a month, but Caltrans counts only 47 accidents in 10 years at the crossing, with no fatalities.

The Mussel Shoals intersection is also remarkably accident-free, with only 48 in 10 years, including two fatalities, according to Caltrans.

“There are not as many accidents as you might think there’d be,” said Mussel Shoals resident Darrell Reynolds, “but that’s because people are really careful--and lucky.”

Although residents of the two communities have been lobbying for years to get the state to build ramps and an overpass, the only improvements have been acceleration and deceleration lanes, which were installed a few years ago at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.

Major construction would cost $50 million to $60 million, Caltrans estimates, but none is planned. The site is not included on a list of 15 projects the Ventura County Transportation Commission has scheduled for completion over the next 25 years at a combined cost of $336 million.

Feeling ignored in their remote corner of the county, residents say nobody cares about them because the two communities are so small--La Conchita has several hundred residents and Mussel Shoals has several dozen.

“There’s no horsepower here,” Alviani said.

Caltrans agrees. A major project “is not warranted yet and not justified for the amount of money to be spent for the people there,” said Dave Servaes, Caltrans regional maintenance manager in Ventura. “There are only so many dollars, and they have to be spent to benefit the most people.”

Caltrans, Servaes said, bases its decisions on “statistics and studies and engineering.” And the statistics don’t support the residents’ claim that their section of freeway is dangerous.

“It’s more of a perceived problem than a demonstrated one,” said Larry Loudon, a Caltrans traffic engineer.

But Loudon can understand the frustration and fears of the residents. “I can empathize with these people,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to do what they do” to get on the freeway.

With three lanes funneling into two from both directions, traffic jams develop on Sunday nights, especially during holiday weekends.

“Sometimes it’s gridlock,” Alviani said.

Which may be irritating to motorists but beneficial to residents of La Conchita. Their standard procedure for going to the beach is to dodge cars and run across the freeway. But on weekends, traffic often crawls to a halt and residents are able to walk between the cars.

If gridlock is good, a mere heavy flow is not. If a steady stream of cars forms a continuous, almost unbreakable chain, residents of both towns can be trapped.

“It can be virtually impossible for us to get out,” Alviani said.

While motorists have their share of anxious moments, bicyclists are petrified riding on a designated bike path along a 10,000-foot guardrail on the ocean side of the freeway between La Conchita and Rincon Point.

“It’s terrifying,” said Mark Eaton, president of Central Coast Velo, a county cycling club. “We try to get through there as fast as we can.”

Built two years ago by Caltrans, the $350,000 guardrail is only eight to 10 feet from the freeway, forcing cyclists to ride too close to traffic, Eaton says. Last month, a 65-year-old female cyclist was killed when a southbound car drifted into the bike lane and struck her.

Vehicles are allowed to park on the shoulder between the guardrail and the freeway, reducing the bike path to inches.

“The guardrail was designed totally wrong,” Eaton said.

Caltrans admits it made a mistake. “We didn’t realize we’d cause a problem for cyclists,” Loudon said. “Frankly, we goofed.”

To correct the mistake, Caltrans will spend another $700,000 to move the guardrail back about two feet, but Eaton thinks the money will be wasted.

“That’s not going to solve the problem,” said Eaton, who would like to see the guardrail placed between the cyclists and the freeway.

But like residents of La Conchita and Mussel Shoals, cyclists don’t have an alternative route on which to travel up or down the coast. The 2.9-miles remain their only direct link.

“We’re definitely stuck with it,” Alviani said.