Croy Road resident wants speed limit signs to deter reckless driving

One longtime Croy Road resident’s growing concern over reckless driving on the winding, mountainous road has prompted county staff to take a closer look to see if any corrective measures are necessary.
Pamela Iverson has lived in her rural residence on 10 acres of hillside and redwood trees in unincorporated west Morgan Hill since 1980. However, a recent scare involving a black truck barreling down Croy Road while she was watering a small apple tree along the roadside set her off.
“They fly up here like Daytona,” said the 61-year-old retired machinist who has endured many close encounters with vehicles while walking her dogs as well. “Nobody can walk their dogs. Nobody can walk period….And they throw garbage all over the place.”
Iverson said she also witnessed two bicyclists take spills on Croy Road due to speeding and reckless driving around the sharp twists and turns of the roadway that has little if any shoulder room with steep hillside drops.
“There’s no speed limit. They do what they want to do,” said Iverson, whose goal is to get some speed limit signs posted on Croy Road. “They have them on Uvas. How come they don’t have them on Croy?”
Santa Clara County County’s traffic engineer, Masoud Akbarzadeh, said staff with the Roads and Airports Department has not received a complaint or request about Croy Road. However, Akbarzadeh agreed to begin a traffic review of Croy Road and contact Iverson to listen to her concerns.
“When we get a request, we do a traffic study. I haven’t had any requests for Croy Road, but I’ll take this as a request. We will do a review of the road,” said Akbarzadeh when contacted by the Times.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office has received three calls regarding reckless driving on Croy Road since January and at least one was from Iverson, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. James Jensen. There has not been an accident on Croy Road since October 2012, according to California Highway Patrol records.
The narrow two-lane road, which begins with a turn off Uvas Road, gets even narrower for vehicles across a few small bridges where there is no solid yellow center divider line. The road eventually winds its way up to Uvas Canyon Park, which Iverson says is becoming a more popular destination for travelers.
“It’s a (winding) and mountainous road, but there is a very low volume of traffic,” Akbarzadeh said. “We normally do not assign a speed limit on that kind of roadway.”
Akbarzadeh explained that on a road like Croy, drivers are expected to follow the basic speed law, which is to drive according to the conditions of the road.
“There’s a lot of curves going up, going down, so it’s not the kind of roadway that we can put one speed limit that is good for the entire road,” Akbarzadeh continued.
Along Croy Road on Iverson’s property is a special place where the ashes of her older brother, Kelly Reynolds, are buried beneath that same apple tree planted in 2009 only a few feet from the roadway. Iverson said she was watering the tree from inside a small wired fence when a black truck traveling at a dangerously high rate of speed nearly crashed right into her before managing the curve.
“I said enough is enough. I’m not putting up with it anymore,” said Iverson, who recommends a 25-mph speed limit for Croy Road to deter drivers from speeding away. “It’s a wonder somebody hasn’t been killed on this road.”
The speed limit on Uvas Road, which connects to Croy, is 35 mph with signage throughout the rural roadway. Akbarzadeh said that is the case because Uvas is one of the main roads connecting North County to South County on the backside.
The county is currently beginning the design phase for some shoulder widening work in “certain critical areas to improve bicycle safety” along Uvas Road from Bailey Avenue down to Croy Road as well as on Watsonville Road, according to Akbarzadeh.
“We will definitely initiate a review of (Croy Road),” Akbarzadeh said. “After school gets out we do notice the number of joy riders increases and some of them are not quite respectful of the laws or rules of the road.”