Tony Zeppetella, an Oceanside police officer killed while on duty performing a traffic stop in 2003. In 2018, SR 76 had an annual average daily traffic (AADT) of 1,950 between East Palomar Road and the eastern terminus at SR 79, and 55,000 between I-5 and Loretta Street in Oceanside, the latter of which was the highest AADT for the highway. History The road through the San Luis Rey Valley was planned as early as 1889 and was constructed during the early 20th century. It was added to the state highway system in 1933, while the condition of the highway continued to improve. The San Luis Rey Mission Expressway was eventually constructed during the 1990s and 2000s, and efforts to extend the expressway east to I-15 were completed during the 2010s. Original road Plans by the City of Oceanside for a road east through the San Luis Rey Valley to Fallbrook date from June 1889, and included a bridge over the San Luis Rey River. Construction on the bridge over the river at Bonsall had commenced by October 1906, and the bridge was to be long. In November, the road to the bridge was under construction; originally, the bridge was to serve the road from Escondido to Temecula. A survey was commissioned in 1908 to replace the road along the south bank of the river with one along the north bank to Pala, as the former was sandy and difficult for travel. State funding issues for the Pala road by May 1912 that prevented completion, though the planned road had been surveyed from Bonsall, where it met with the Escondido road, to Oceanside. Flooding in January 1916 resulted in the closing of the pre-existing road between Bonsall and Pala; part of it reopened in October. Nevertheless, of the road between Pauma Valley and Pala did not reopen for two years. Meanwhile, a road from Pala to Warner Springs neared completion in March 1918, though a bridge would be necessary for the road to be usable during the winter months. By mid-1921, plans were underway to pave Mission Avenue through the Oceanside city limits. The first east from Oceanside were paved by November 1924. The Bonsall Bridge over the San Luis Rey River was completed in 1925, and opened in 1926 as the county's largest bridge at the time; it served as part of the road from San Diego to Elsinore. The