LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The head of San Bernardino County Fire is calling for infrastructure upgrades and more first responders on a stretch of Interstate 15 beyond the Nevada state line.
Traffic cameras in Primm showed traffic crawling along around noon Monday as the Memorial Day holiday came to an end. Three lanes from Nevada bottlenecking into two in California.
Two years ago, driving on the shoulder became legal at peak times to alleviate bumper-to-bumper traffic that backs up for miles at the end of holiday weekends, as Californians head home, or anytime there is a major traffic incident.
Dan Munsey, fire chief for San Bernardino County Fire, said there needs to be a more permanent solution.
In December 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to expand a five-mile stretch from the state line.
“And it will be done by this summer, you’re holding me to account, it’s on me to get it done by this summer,” Newsom said at a press conference off I-15 with then-Gov. Steve Sisolak.
A traffic map of the area around 4 p.m. Memorial Day showed traffic there virtually at a standstill.
According to an analysis of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released in 2024, Consumer Affairs found the I-15 in San Bernardino County to be the deadliest section of highway in the state, with 48 deaths in 2022.
Munsey has worked the stretch of interstate for three decades and said accidents are a nearly daily occurrence.
“Just on the 17th, we had five trailers that were fully involved. Unfortunately, we had one of the drivers deceased,” Munsey said.
Major events like a lithium battery fire in 2024 that shut down the freeway for 100 hours can be catastrophic, he said.
“You could literally have 40,000 people that are stuck in traffic, which occurred during our lithium-ion battery fire… six months ago, we had a truck fire full of tires that shut down that freeway,” Munsey said. “Now you have 40,000 people that you need to take care of, but you literally have two fire engines to do this, one in Baker, one in Harvard.”
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There are only a few small towns along the desert highway.
“You’re literally driving through the southern edge of Death Valley,” Munsey said. “It can get very narrow in certain locations down to two lanes, and there’s literally no other way to go.”
He said people exit the freeway looking for ways to escape traffic and then get stuck, creating a new emergency.
“They may look at Apple Maps or… Waze and they see a dirt road and they think, ‘Oh, I can make it,’” Munsey said. “But what they don’t realize is how soft that sand is.”
He is asking for more lanes and more resources.
“There needs to be additional fire facilities out there,” Munsey said. “Needs to be an investment in the infrastructure the firefighters need, the tools and equipment, for example, heavy rescue. There is none. The heavy rescues are coming from Las Vegas, but if they’re stuck in 10 hours of traffic, guess what? You can’t get it there.”
Munsey said the area between Las Vegas and Barstow is largely federal land, and there are no communities to support any kind of tax base for the needed infrastructure.
He said he hopes the federal government recognizes the problem and addresses it.
Caltrans, California’s equivalent to NDOT, did not respond to FOX5’s request for comment about any plans to add lanes to the I-15 in San Bernardino County.
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