A new report by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) suggest that our roads have become death traps. It is an intolerable situation that demands an urgent response.

The report suggests that there are 10 fatalities on California’s roads every day, and that every part of the state has been affected over the last two years.

Last week, CHP officer Brian Liles was killed on California’s Highway 99, the deadliest road in the country. It runs through the Central Valley and has long been recognized by locals as a serious problem.

The road narrows in a way that makes it extremely dangerous for people who are unfamiliar with it. Conditions can change suddenly, traffic can slow without warning, and the results are often catastrophic.

Local writer Victor Davis Hanson wrote a decade ago:

“Running parallel to the southern portion of the 99 is an underused, subsidized Amtrak passenger rail line. Not far away is yet another rail corridor, where the state is plowing up some of its best farmland to build the first link of high-speed rail. That boondoggle’s projected price tag has soared from the original $33 billion to somewhere between $60 and $100 billion — without a single foot of track yet laid.”

Ten years and two Gavin Newsom terms later, the high-speed rail is expected to cost twice as much. And still not an inch of track has been laid.

Yet instead of spending more to address bread-and-butter infrastructure issues, California has spent a decade and-a-half throwing billions of dollars out the window as it attempts to build a bullet train that has been dogged by cost ove runs, mismanagement, and lack of investor interest.

The one hopeful spot for high-speed rail in California was a proposed line from the LA area to Las Vegas, to be run by Brightline. Last month, Brightline filed for bankruptcy. It has failed to attract enough riders in Florida, and it faces severe financial pressure in Southern California as well.

What was once a promising project, funded my private secotr investment, seems to have hit trouble as soon as the federal government stepped in with cash under President Joe Biden. Government money seems to be the kiss of death.

California’s highway system was once the pride of the nation. It is now crumbling, outdated, and dangerous. Each new accident, each new death is a reminder of the price we pay for that neglect.