Another deadly crash at one of Fresno's most dangerous intersections. See the video

Yahoo

11-05-2025

One of Fresno's most dangerous intersections was the scene of another deadly crash.
And it was captured again on video by the operators of the YouTube channel 'Friant Roulette,' which shows the continued hazards of driving through the northeast Fresno intersection at Friant Road and Shepherd Avenue.
Early Friday, a man died after driving at a high-rated speed on Shepherd and never making a turn to go north and south on Friant, according to Fresno police.
Instead, the man's vehicle drove over a curb and hit an embankment before clearing a fence while airborne.
The vehicle burst into flames seconds shortly after the collision.
'We've unfortunately seen and heard many different car crashes at that intersection,' said Dan Wells, who runs the Friant Roulette Youtube Channel with cameras secured high from his backyard and pointed at the intersection.
'This one, when we just heard it, we knew it wasn't good.'
While several other collisions have occurred at the three-way intersection at Friant and Shepherd, Wells noted that Friday's crash was slightly different.
Most crashes that occur at the intersection often came be blamed on those going north on Friant and from running a red light, Wells said.
Friday's crash, though, occurred with the driver heading west on Shepherd and going through a green light.
'It's probably been about 10 years since we've had a car crash started by someone coming from Shepherd,' Wells said. 'That happened before we put our cameras up.
'There's just been a lot of accidents and crashes that have happened here over the years. This one's a little different.'
A study by Southern California law firm Jacoby and Meyers Injury Lawyers said 21 crashes occurred at the Friant-Shepherd intersection between 2020 and 2024.
Among them was the April 2023 crash when a tow truck ran a stop light that had been lit red for more than 10 seconds then T-boning a sedan that was making a left turn from Shepherd to go south on Friant.
A driver of the sedan, a 22-year-old woman who was her way to work, died.
Tow driver driver John Ashcraft, 53, admitted in court last October that he was high on meth.
Other parts of Friant Road located east of Highway 41 have been danger zones, too.
In October 2023, a 50-year-old doctor driving a Tesla at an estimated speed of 124 mph on Friant north of Champlain Drive fatally crashed and killed his passenger wife.
In May 2022, a bicyclist was killed near Aubudon Avenue and Friant.
And in June 2021, a 10-year-old boy was fatally struck near the intersection of Fort Washington Avenue and Friant.
The City of Fresno made a few safety measures in late 2024, most noticeable safety measures implemented to prevent right turns on red lights. In addition, the speed limit along Friant was dropped from 55 to 50 mph.
Wells, however, said the collisions along Friant, especially at Shepherd keep occurring.
He suggested one idea would be to simply prevent right-turning lights from turning green and instead making it a cautionary, flashing yellow.
'One thing we have seen, read and heard is people who'd regularly drive through that intersection (Friant and Shepherd) are much more aware of the dangers there and either refuse to drive out until three to four seconds have passed after a light has turned from red to green; or they're avoiding driving through that intersection all together,' Wells said.
'But this last car crash, I don't know what safety measure would've stopped that one.'