Why this matters
Data shows medians reduce the amount of pedestrian collisions and can help lower driver speeds.
Chula Vista officials plan to build a new median and redirect traffic along a portion of Telegraph Canyon Road that has been a hotspot for crashes.
The new, raised median would prevent drivers from turning westbound from Old Telegraph Canyon Road, according to a city Traffic Safety Commission report. Crews will also construct a U-turn “pocket” and make tweaks to the traffic signal at Telegraph Canyon and Medical Center Drive.
Westbound drivers leaving Old Telegraph — a stretch of road that’s just one-third of a mile and includes medical offices and a cannabis dispensary — must cross three eastbound lanes and speeding motorists to make the left turn.
Residents may know it as an area prone to collisions. Records that inewsource obtained show roughly a dozen collisions between 2021 and 2024 along several intersections in the area. One crash in November killed a motorcyclist after he hit the median and lost control.
Last month, a driver of a Nissan Sentra turning left from Old Telegraph struck a Ford Mustang heading eastbound on Telegraph Canyon Road. Passengers of the Sentra were transported to a hospital for evaluation, according to the Chula Vista Police Department.
The next day, a crash involving three cars traveling westbound took place near Telegraph and Paseo Ladera, where a Sentra going westbound struck a Mercedes and a Hyundai. No one reported injuries at the time, police said.
Even Chula Vista Mayor John McCann suffered severe injuries after a crash there. In 2013, a driver collided with McCann, then a school board trustee, as McCann attempted to turn left out of Old Telegraph. Police concluded that the other driver was traveling 63 mph while the speed limit was 45 mph, media outlets reported at the time.
The city just completed its design phase for the new median and expects to complete construction by the end of the year. Officials did not respond to an inewsource inquiry about the project’s cost.
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Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
