BAKERSFIELD, CA - Police say it's too early to determine if speed was a factor in a deadly car crash in southwest Bakersfield on Saturday, but they are looking into the possibility that drugs were. It happened on a stretch of road where several traffic fatalities have happened in at least the last five years.
Gosford Road and Stockdale Highway is one of Bakersfield's busiest intersections.
The Bakersfield Public Works Department says over the last two years, the intersection has had one crash for every 2.5 million cars that travel through it. That is below the state average of one crash for every one million cars that travel through an intersection.
City officials say 55 miles per hour is an appropriate speed limit for this area of town and they hope it doesn't encourage drivers to go any faster.
According to the Bakersfield Police Department, since 2009 there have been five fatal crashes on Coffee or Gosford Road from Stockdale Highway to White Lane. One of them, directly speed-related.
"We look at the number of accidents compared to how many people drive through the intersection, and we haven't seen anything dangerous in that part of town in the last couple of years."
John Usery with Bakersfield Public Works says speed limits are based on how fast 85 percent of drivers travel.
A map found on Bakersfield's traffic engineering web page shows speed limits throughout the city. The pink lines, found primarily on the southwest part of town, show the speed limit is 55 miles per hour.
"The people on Gosford and Coffee are comfortable driving 55 and that's where the speed limit in the engineering study should be. We can't artificially lower it because we think people are driving too fast," Usery said.
In Saturday's deadly crash, police say 22-year-old Rodolfo Contreras lost control of his Honda Civic when he sped up to make a red light. He went over the center divider and into oncoming northbound traffic, hitting and killing 54-year-old David Aggio of Rohnert Park.
According to the Bakersfield Californian, Aggio was a father of two visiting his wife who works in Bakersfield.
In 2012, Rodolfo Contreras was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance, felony transporting a controlled substance and driving without a license.
The transporting charge was dropped, the possession charge was deferred and Contreras pleaded no contest to driving without a license.
He had not been booked into jail as of newstime Monday.
Gosford Road and Stockdale Highway is one of Bakersfield's busiest intersections.
The Bakersfield Public Works Department says over the last two years, the intersection has had one crash for every 2.5 million cars that travel through it. That is below the state average of one crash for every one million cars that travel through an intersection.
City officials say 55 miles per hour is an appropriate speed limit for this area of town and they hope it doesn't encourage drivers to go any faster.
According to the Bakersfield Police Department, since 2009 there have been five fatal crashes on Coffee or Gosford Road from Stockdale Highway to White Lane. One of them, directly speed-related.
"We look at the number of accidents compared to how many people drive through the intersection, and we haven't seen anything dangerous in that part of town in the last couple of years."
John Usery with Bakersfield Public Works says speed limits are based on how fast 85 percent of drivers travel.
A map found on Bakersfield's traffic engineering web page shows speed limits throughout the city. The pink lines, found primarily on the southwest part of town, show the speed limit is 55 miles per hour.
"The people on Gosford and Coffee are comfortable driving 55 and that's where the speed limit in the engineering study should be. We can't artificially lower it because we think people are driving too fast," Usery said.
In Saturday's deadly crash, police say 22-year-old Rodolfo Contreras lost control of his Honda Civic when he sped up to make a red light. He went over the center divider and into oncoming northbound traffic, hitting and killing 54-year-old David Aggio of Rohnert Park.
According to the Bakersfield Californian, Aggio was a father of two visiting his wife who works in Bakersfield.
In 2012, Rodolfo Contreras was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance, felony transporting a controlled substance and driving without a license.
The transporting charge was dropped, the possession charge was deferred and Contreras pleaded no contest to driving without a license.
He had not been booked into jail as of newstime Monday.