State Route 126 (SR 126) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that serves Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The route runs from U.S. Route 101 in Ventura to Interstate 5 in Santa Clarita through the Santa Clara River Valley. The highway is an important connector highway in Ventura County, and serves as an alternate route into the Santa Clarita Valley, and (via Interstate 5) the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles and the High Desert of Antelope Valley. Route description SR 126 generally follows the Santa Clara River through the valley, passing through the towns of Fillmore and Santa Paula. The freeway portion of the highway, known as the Santa Paula Freeway, begins in Ventura at U.S. Route 101. It proceeds northeast through the city, interchanging with the western end of SR 118 at a grade-separated interchange. SR 126 then passes through areas of agriculture, orchards, and the Saticoy Oil Field to its northeast, continuing through Santa Paula, where it intersects SR 150, and the freeway portion terminates at Hallock Drive. SR 126 continues as a highway thereafter, known as Telegraph Road. This section extends through Fillmore as Ventura Street, where SR 126 meets SR 23. Following this, SR 126 as Telegraph Road encounters the community of Buckhorn, as well as the edge of Piru and the important historical Rancho Camulos. The stretch of SR 126 between Santa Paula and the Los Angeles County line has seen an unusually high amount of traffic fatalities and other injurious accidents. Head-on collisions were very frequent on the older, curvy, two-laned sections, earning this portion of the road its nickname, "Blood Alley". An article from the Los Angeles Times in 1996, noted 34 fatalities between 1990 and 1994. Though the highway has since been improved in most areas, traffic fatalities are still quite common. In Los Angeles County, SR 126 is known as Henry Mayo Drive. The highway continues east to an interchange with I-5. At this interchange the SR 126 designation terminates, and the road continues into Santa Clarita as Newhall Ranch Road. SR 126 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. SR 126 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System, but it