Angeles Crest often makes headlines. Whether it’s idiots flying off cliffs, rogue influencers recklessly seeking internet power or horrific crashes, it’s an unfortunate hotspot for highly publicized incidents. As a resident, I have always wondered: how bad is the situation at Crest? Someone has made a map of almost every incident at Crest in the last decade.
Thanks to Instagram user @bluturtwhich collected data from the California Highway Patrol, we can see a heat map of accidents broken down by accident type. Each data point also contains the original report, which details the incident and the vehicles involved.
He does say that the “CHP data is pretty dirty,” meaning the map is not definitive in any way. But it’s an interesting reference point, especially for someone like me who is on the road three to four days a week.
What does the data say?
At first glance, the data seems dire. Nearly every inch of the road is covered in accidents, with a fair number of fatalities (marked on the map with an “x”). But there are a few interesting things to point out amid the wreckage.
The most crashed vehicle in the woods is a Honda Civic; perhaps not so surprising. Most accidents happen during the morning and afternoon rush hours. And motorcycle accidents mainly happen on Sundays.
Photo by: Bluturt
For context, Angeles Crest Highway (ACH) is just the main road that runs through the Angeles National Forest. There are several companion roads: Angeles Forest Highway (AFH), Big Tujunga Canyon Road, and Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road (known to locals as Nine Mile). They are all on this map.
ACH runs from La Cañada Flintridge to the mountain town of Wrightwood, essentially serving as a tourist and recreational road. AFH connects ACH to Palmdale and serves as a crucial commuter route. Big Tujunga and Upper Big Tujunga connect the valley town of Sunland to AFH and then to Wrightwood. The most important thing to note is AFH, as it has a major impact on the dataset presented here.
The commuter effect
Where enthusiasts contribute
While AFH, the commuter road, has many incidents, ACH has more clearly defined hotspots and problem corners. For example, the corner where Call of Duty creator Vince Zampella tragically crashed his Ferrari shows a strong cluster of collisions involving individual vehicles and objects. Another corner, close to a place called Windy Gap and affectionately called ‘the shadies’, is a well-known danger area among locals, where a concentration of rollovers can be seen.
Almost every corner that locals know to be a problem area is covered in incidents, which you can see below.
The truth is this: ACH has a strong community of spirited drivers. This varies from people who drive at a nice pace to people who drive quite fast. There’s no reason for an enthusiast to crash on a road like Crest… other than hitting a deer, or the four people who hit a bear.
Several factors likely contribute to ACH’s high accident density – its proximity to the Southland, its immense popularity among enthusiasts, or a truly crappy commute – but commuters and drivers alike could use a little more respect for the road. It can and will bite back.
Enjoy the map and let us know what interesting details you find.