Accident study finds no visibility link in Cienegas Road crashes

A county-ordered crash study gave Val Verde County commissioners their clearest answer yet on Cienegas Road: 29 reported wrecks from Dec. 24, 2021, through Jan. 6, 2026, and none were tied to poor visibility. County Attorney David Martinez told Commissioners Court on June 3 that 19 of those crashes happened in daylight and the 10 nighttime reports did not list darkness as a cause, a finding that undercuts the argument that lights alone would have prevented the collisions already on record.

The study returned to a court that had already asked for evidence before taking another swing at the issue. The June 3 agenda placed the proposed Cienegas Rd new street lighting project on the table for discussion and possible action, including approval of six LED street lights and authorization for an AEP Texas CIAC agreement. It also said the court would review past voting history, give Precinct 4 constituents a formal status update and address safety hazards around the Duck Pond area.

Martinez said his office worked with the Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office because the stretch lies outside the Del Rio city limits, where county law enforcement would normally handle crash investigations. The corridor has become a flash point for Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores, who has repeatedly argued that dark conditions and heavy use justify more lighting. Proposed light locations have included 2345 Cienegas Rd./Finegan Rd., 2727 Cienegas Rd., 2917 Cienegas Rd., 3019 Cienegas Rd. at the duck pond frontage and 109 Owens Rd. at the Cienegas intersection. Flores has said he had letters of support from the Del Rio Independent School District, law enforcement and tenants of the Del Rio Industrial Park.

The crash study does not settle the broader policy question of who should pay when Cienegas Road keeps changing. Commissioners voted 5-0 on Feb. 26 and again on March 3 to clarify that developers should pay for lighting in new subdivisions, and that replatted property beside an existing road without lights should be billed for installation. The court also rejected Flores’ earlier request for seven LED streetlights on Feb. 26 and a later motion for six LED streetlights on April 23, both in 2-3 votes.

What happens next matters beyond the lights themselves. Flores has already announced a $2.2 million TxDOT grant for 6,100 linear feet of four-foot-wide sidewalks from the Del Rio city limits west to the Duck Pond, and a separate county notice described about 11,000 linear feet of sidewalks and ADA-compliant ramps along the same corridor. With those pedestrian upgrades moving alongside a rebid of the broader Cienegas Road project, commissioners now have to decide whether new streetlights are the right fix, a partial fix or a cost the county should keep pressing on someone else. Until they act, drivers and pedestrians will keep sharing a corridor where the accident study says visibility was not the trigger, but the safety debate is still far from over.