ARIZONA

Driving to Puerto Penasco should get safer in time for spring break 2018

Scott Craven
The Republic | azcentral.com
The beach at Las Conchas in Puerto Penasco.

Parents whose college students are driving to Puerto Peñasco for spring break 2018 should have a little less to worry about this year.

The Arizona Department of Transportation is working with officials from Sonora, Mexico, to establish a safety corridor along Mexico Route 8, the road to the beaches and resorts of Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point. Here's the U.S. State Department's guidance on traveling to Mexico.

ADOT said it will help train law enforcement and military officers patrolling the highway, sharing expertise on clearing crashes and restoring traffic flow. Such measures have been shown to reduce the risk of secondary accidents, which can be more serious than initial crashes, ADOT said.

The safety corridor will include signs flashing safety messages in English and Spanish. Sonora will share traffic and road conditions with 511 and az511.gov, which keeps tabs on accidents, construction projects, road closures and more.

ADOT officials said the safety corridor should be in place by spring break, which begins in mid-March.

The idea came up when ADOT officials were in Hermosillo, Sonora, recently to help truck drivers prepare for safety inspections at commercial ports of entry, according to Tim Lane, director of ADOT’s enforcement and compliance division.

“We started talking about creating a safety corridor, and leaders from both Arizona and Sonora liked the idea right away,” Lane said. “We hope to learn from each other and make a safer environment for everyone.”

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Rocky Point is a popular destination for Arizonans, particularly for college students who want to take advantage of Mexico’s legal drinking age of 18.

During the first 10 months of 2017, more than 910,000 people entered Arizona at Lukeville, many of them Arizonans returning from Rocky Point, according to ADOT.

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