Bakersfield is installing six red-light cameras at southwest intersections. Separately, a law firm’s review of state crash records found 34 collisions within a 50-foot radius of the convergence of 23rd Street, 24th Street and Chester Avenue from 2015 through 2025—the highest count in its citywide analysis.
The ranking comes from a Chain Cohn Clark analysis of state crash records filed from Jan. 1, 2015, through Dec. 31, 2025. The firm searched within 50 feet of intersections and counted 6,400 intersection crashes citywide over the 11-year period. The 34 collisions at 23rd, 24th and Chester put that location at the top under the firm’s method; the count reflects crashes in the defined area, not a separate measure of their severity.
Several other locations had counts close to the top result: Beale Avenue and Niles Street had 33 crashes; 34th Street and Q Street and Niles Street and Union Avenue had 32 each; and Panama Lane and Union Avenue had 31, according to the analysis.
Afternoon Rush Hour Is the Danger Zone
The analysis also examined when crashes occurred. In 2025, 149 of Bakersfield’s 660 intersection crashes—about 23%—happened between 3 and 6 p.m. Monday from 3 to 5:59 p.m. was the busiest three-hour block of the week, with 26 crashes, according to the Chain Cohn Clark analysis.
The analysis attributed 270 of the 660 intersection crashes in 2025, or 40.9%, to traffic-signal and sign violations. Automobile right-of-way violations brought the combined share for those two categories to nearly 64%. Of 639 mapped intersection crashes that year, 103 involved a pedestrian or bicyclist—the highest share in the 11 years reviewed. The analysis counted nine fatal crashes and 10 deaths in 2025, the lowest death total since 2019.
Police Point to Speed, Expand Camera Coverage
Police use a different set of considerations when identifying problem intersections, including speed, collision type and crash severity. The department has identified speeding as a leading factor in collisions and says it focuses on reducing the most serious, life-threatening crashes, rather than every fender-bender, according to 23ABC News.
To that end, Bakersfield had 10 active red-light cameras running before the latest expansion, and the station's report notes the city is now installing six more at intersections with some of the highest rates of dangerous broadside crashes. The new readers are going up at Ming Avenue and Gosford Road, White Lane and Stine Road, White Lane and Gosford Road, Ming Avenue and New Stine Road, Panama Lane and Stine Road, and Panama Lane and Ashe Road, with the cameras expected to go live by late summer 2026.
Bakersfield Police Lieutenant Joseph Galland, the department’s Traffic Commander, helped select the locations after reviewing crash data and traffic patterns. Galland said cameras can be used at some locations where an officer cannot be present at all times, according to 23ABC. A resident told the station that two collisions happened in one day near their Chester Avenue barbershop.
A Decades-Old Enforcement Tool
Bakersfield's red-light camera program isn't new. The city first rolled out photo-enforced red-light enforcement in March 2003, with citations issued by Bakersfield City Police, according to the Superior Court of California, County of Kern. The Bakersfield Police Department has worked with Redflex automated traffic cameras designed to catch drivers who fail to stop at red lights, as The Bakersfield Californian has reported, and in 2018 the intersection of Coffee Road and Stockdale Highway was among the most cited in the city for violations caught on camera.
Chris Hagan said narrowing roadways has slowed traffic in some areas, according to 23ABC (KERO). The city has urged drivers to slow down and stay alert, and has reminded pedestrians to look both ways before crossing as part of its broader safety messaging.
How Bakersfield's Danger List Has Shifted
The 2026 list differs geographically from the firm’s 2022 ranking. Five intersections appear on both: 34th and Q, Brundage and P, H and Ming, H and Planz, and Baker and Niles. The newer list includes more locations in downtown and older central and east-side parts of the city, while the 2022 list was led by southwest intersections, according to the analysis. In 2022, BakersfieldNow reported 40 crashes since 2011 at Ming Avenue and New Stine Road, 37 at Gosford Road and Ming Avenue, 31 at Baker Street and Niles Street, and 30 at 4th Street and Union Avenue.
National research generally associates red-light cameras with fewer serious crashes, but that evidence does not establish what effect Bakersfield’s expansion will have at its new sites. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s research, summarized by IIHS, reports reductions in fatal red-light-running crashes in large cities and in crashes after some camera programs were discontinued.
What the crash data and camera research can show
The figures above describe intersection crashes in the firm’s analysis; they do not provide a direct comparison with Bakersfield’s overall crash record or California’s city rankings. The California Office of Traffic Safety says its rankings compare cities with similar populations using a weighted method that includes crash counts, population and vehicle miles traveled—not rankings of individual intersections. A literature review indexed by PubMed found reductions in violations, crashes and injuries across the studies it reviewed, but cautioned that the evidence was limited and some studies had methodological shortcomings. That research does not determine the effect of Bakersfield’s new cameras.
Statewide, the stakes are significant: red-light runners caused 167 fatalities and nearly 1,000 serious injuries across California in 2023, according to the Manteca Bulletin. That outlet also reported that Merced saw a 50% drop in fatal crashes after installing red-light cameras, while San Jose recorded a 28% reduction in violations within the first 60 days of its camera program — and that communities which removed red-light cameras saw a 30% increase in traffic collisions.
Road-safety measures beyond cameras
Red-light enforcement is not the only type of safety work in the city’s plans. The City of Bakersfield’s 2022 Local Road Safety Plan lists six proposed project types, including signal upgrades, pedestrian crossings, lighting or speed-feedback signs, medians, and pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
