Efforts for Jenner traffic safety ramping up after drowning deaths

JENNER

Cars have crashed into the Russian River near the seaside village of Jenner before.

But the death of two young sisters from town who drowned after their mother’s truck hit slick roads and careened over the bluff has forged a resolve among residents to fight for improved traffic safety for the town, where Highway 1 serves as a cliff-side thoroughfare.

Put noisy rumble strips on the road. Add flashing lights at the outskirts that activate when vehicles come and go. Install a guardrail between motorists maneuvering the winding two-lane highway and the precipice of a steep cliff.

“We’ve had enough accidents. We have to do something,” said Michelle Irwin, speaking from behind the counter at the Jenner by the Sea Gifts store.

On Wednesday, Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo pointed out that the first left-leaning curve heading south out of town has been an ongoing concern for residents for years, spurred by other fatal crashes in the area.

“It breaks my heart and saddens me this tragedy is what may get us to do more on that stretch of road,” Carrillo said.

Carrillo said he contacted state road and highway officials as well as state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, after learning of Tuesday’s crash, seeking action.

It was somewhere near that curve that Sarah Markus’ pickup began to slide on the wet roadway Tuesday morning, as she drove her daughters, Kaitlyn, 6, and Hailey, 4, to school. CHP officials said the mother apparently overcorrected in trying to steady the truck and the vehicle careened off the bluff, plummeted about 40 feet to the river and sank.

Markus told officers she tried but couldn’t reach her children, who were buckled in the back seat. Before the truck went under the water she kicked out her door window, got out and began screaming for help as the truck quickly sank, according to a CHP report.

Several bystanders and deputies jumped into the river and tried to get to the truck, invisible from the surface in the murky water, its roof about 15 feet below the surface. The first State Parks lifeguard arrived from the Salmon Creek station more than 10  minutes after the call and, wearing fins, tried repeatedly to get to the girls. Another lifeguard arrived after about 25 minutes and, wearing diving gear and a weight belt, was able to get into the cab and find the girls, who were by then unbuckled and deceased in the water-filled cab.

Grief remained palpable in town Wednesday as neighbors and residents continued to try and grasp the loss to their community of the little girls, believed to be Jenner’s youngest inhabitants. The sign leading into town says Jenner’s population is 107.

Steve Dee, 66, teared up as he recalled the girls, who had been his neighbors.

“I listened to their laughter as I worked on the house. How much I enjoyed it,” Dee said. “They were like little birds singing.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Dee stood on the dirt highway shoulder near the site of the crash where a memorial with flowers, balloons, stuffed bunnies and bears grew throughout the day.

A set of wind chimes sounded in the light wind. The plasterboard was still drying on a makeshift tiled cross constructed at the site.

Christian Andersen, a chef at the Sea Ranch Lodge who said he knew the Markus girls and their family, fought back tears as he tied a red kite to a nearby power pole. On the kite were written the words, “Walk with god. We will all miss you.”

A neighbor of the Markus family, David Kenly, said he woke up Wednesday morning after a long, tearful night and called Carrillo’s office, motivated to turn the town’s grief into action.

He set up a three-member ad hoc committee to work with the supervisor on his efforts to press state officials to improve Highway 1 safety.

Whether adding a guardrail would be aesthetically appropriate in an area that offers a wide, lovely view of the mouth of the river was dismissed by several Jenner folks on Wednesday as unimportant compared to the safety of drivers.

“Whatever we can do to calm traffic. Whatever it takes. This is a tragedy. This is a nightmare,” said Cal Ares, president of the Jenner Community Club and a member of the fledgling committee. Dee is the third member.

Two years ago residents sought safety improvements, including a flashing light, following the death of a 28-year-old Cazadero man. Officials said Devin Cooper had been speeding through town when he lost control and his truck hit and then went over a guardrail and landed in the river.

That Oct. 30, 2014, crash happened several hundred feet from Tuesday’s crash, closer to town. In 2010, a visitor to the coast drove off the bluff on the same curve where Markus’ pickup began to slide. No one reported the crash, and the woman driver was found trapped underwater in her vehicle two days later.

At the Jenner Sea Store gas station, Robert McShea teared up as he described jumping into the water to try to help Cooper after the 2014 crash. Markus and the girls often came into the store for ice cream.

“We’re all heartbroken,” McShea said. “And we’re all talking about a guardrail.”

Carrillo credited Caltrans officials with “doing the best they can” but Wednesday the west county supervisor said he and residents would push harder.

“We can do everything we can,” Carrillo said. “We can ask. We can pepper.”

McGuire said in a statement Wednesday he would work with the supervisor, community and state agencies on a solution “to ensure tragedies like this never happen again.”

In the meantime, the people of Jenner are setting up a meal train to ensure hot food will keep appearing at the doorstep for Sarah Markus and her family for weeks to come. They are organizing a gathering Friday night at the Jenner community center with residents, counselors and chaplains.

They are taking solace in the symbolism of two seals bobbing in the water near where the pickup disappeared below the surface. And they are trying to see peace for the girls in the sight of a pair of snowy white egrets perched near the Markus family home.

“We have to take care of our grieving family,” Kenly said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem. You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.