Marin supervisors back lower speed limit at site of fatal Woodacre crash

The county is reducing the speed limit on a section of road in Woodacre where four Marin teens died in a crash in April.

The Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance on a first reading that will cut the speed limit from 40 mph to 30 mph in both directions on San Geronimo Valley Drive between Park Street and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

The crash occurred on San Geronimo Valley Drive just south of the boulevard. A Volkswagen SUV transporting six girls, all between 14 and 16 years old, veered off the road, struck a tree near the shoulder and caught fire. Three occupants were pronounced dead at the crash site and a fourth was pronounced dead at a hospital. The  driver and another passenger survived.

The California Highway Patrol determined that the Volkswagen was traveling at 60 mph or more when it crashed.

Briefing county supervisors prior to their vote on Dec. 16, Brett Cutler, a county civil engineer, said the staff was conducting a routine evaluation of the posted speed limit on San Geronimo Valley Drive when the crash occurred.

“We hit pause for a little bit prior to establishing a formalized engineering and traffic survey,” Cutler said.

Traditionally, California speed limits are set through engineering and traffic surveys that measure prevailing vehicle speeds. Speed limits are typically set at or near the speed traveled by 85% of the vehicles surveyed, but local jurisdictions may set limits 5 mph under the prevailing speed because of certain safety considerations such as pedestrian and bicycle activity, road geometry and pavement conditions.

In addition, Assembly Bill 43, which took effect in 2024, has given local jurisdictions more flexibility in setting local speed limits, Cutler said.

“It allowed local municipalities to designate up to 20% of their road mileage as safety corridors,” Cutler said, “which allows for a further 5 mile per hour reduction in speed limits.”

By declaring the section of San Geronimo Valley Drive a safety corridor, the county is allowed to reduce the speed to 30 mph.

The move drew praise from Marin residents who commented during the supervisors’ meeting.

“I’m just here to tell you that it was needed long before this,” said Vernon Huffman, president of the Access4Bikes Foundation. “Before this tragic incident, I was trying to learn the process of asking for a speed limit reduction on San Geronimo Drive.”

Huffman, a resident of Woodacre, said he rides his bicycle on the road daily. He said there is no shoulder for bikes to ride on, and cars sometimes go around him despite double yellow lines that prohibit passing.

“When they pass me at 55 to 65 miles an hour,” Huffman said, “it’s pretty scary.”

Warren Wells, policy and planning director of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, called the state’s practice of setting speed limits by surveying average speeds “goofy.” Wells said that because of AB 43, he expects the county to look at designating additional safety corridors and lowering speed limits.

llene Wolf, a Woodacre resident who also travels daily on San Geronimo Valley Drive, expressed skepticism.

“I think lowering the speed limit doesn’t address what the real issue is, that teens are coming into the area speeding,” Wolf said. “They need to know they’re going to lose their license or even worse if they cause an accident.”

The teen who was driving the car in the deadly crash has been charged with a misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter and the infractions of driving at an unsafe speed and violating the terms of her provisional driver’s license.

At the same meeting that supervisors approved the speed change ordinance, they also received an update on the county’s efforts to implement its local road safety plan, which the supervisors adopted last winter. The plan focuses on reducing traffic deaths and severe injuries on roads through analysis of collision history, road conditions and community comments.

The county is using a $200,000 grant from the Transportation Authority of Marin to make pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements at a pedestrian crossing in Marin City, near Bacich Elementary School in Kentfield and along the Bay Trail gap from San Quentin to Remillard Park in Larkspur.

At the Dec. 16 meeting, Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters also asked county staff to look into suggestions by Woodacre resident Eric Morey to make road changes in West Marin.

Morey recommended giving patrons of Spirit Rock Meditation Center the option of a left turn onto Sir Francis Drake Boulevard; installing a four-way stop sign at Railroad Avenue and San Geronimo Valley Drive; and erecting stop signs at the intersection of West Nicasio Road and Nicasio Valley Road to protect visitors to Roy’s Redwoods Preserve.