It's been a grim start to the new year, with four more people dying over the weekend in car crashes on Sacramento streets. Traffic safety advocates say they happened on roads known for dangerous speeds and intersections.

A pedestrian was killed on Arden Way. Three passengers died in a two-car crash along Northgate Boulevard. A man was killed while walking across Fruitridge Road, and a woman was fatally injured in a crash along Power Inn Road.

Less than two weeks into the new year, and a total of seven people have already died on city streets.

"This year is just off to an awful start," said City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum.

Pluckebaum acknowledged the city needs to do more to prevent car crashes.

"Traffic engineers are looking for every opportunity that we can to make our streets safer," he said.

Isaac Gonzales, founder of Slow Down Sacramento, said the locations of where these crashes happened were not surprising.

"These are all streets that we know very well," Gonzalez said. "They're major arterioles that are all on our high collision injury network."

In 2024, Caltrans awarded the city more than $780,000 to make traffic safety improvements on Fruitridge Road and Arden Way. Other major improvements are planned for Folsom Boulevard and Howe Avenue.

So why have none of these projects been completed yet?

"These cost tens of millions of dollars per project easily, so it takes a while," Gonzalez said.

The city is taking some more economical traffic safety measures, like improving crosswalk visibility and reducing speed limits on some streets.

"What we're going to do is slow traffic down in areas where there are pedestrian conflicts, places where traffic already is or should be slower," Pluckebaum said.

Sacramento police say that in 2025, there was a total of 40 people killed in vehicle crashes. Traffic safety advocates fear we might exceed that number this year.

"2026 is really ramping up to look like one of the more deadly years in Sacramento unless we do something right now," Gonzalez said.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty says he wants to improve traffic safety by using technology like speed sensors and red light cameras to issue automatic tickets to drivers.