TBS wins California Journalism Award for traffic safety stories

The Berkeley Scanner has won a first place California Journalism Award for its 2024 coverage of local traffic safety.

The award-winning package featured coverage of Berkeley traffic fatalities as well as community efforts designed to make streets safer.

The package, which won in the enterprise news series category, featured five stories by Scanner founder Emilie Raguso and two by Kate Darby Rauch, a veteran Bay Area journalist and frequent TBS contributor.

Since its launch nearly three years ago, The Scanner has made it a priority to cover serious and fatal traffic collisions in the city — providing largely exclusive coverage that appears nowhere else.

In 2024, Raguso alone wrote more than 50 stories related to traffic collisions and traffic safety in Berkeley.

In addition to the first place win, The Scanner was also a finalist in several other California Journalism Award categories, including 2024 election coverage, best newsletter, breaking news, for reporting on People's Park (which included a story by contributor Frances Dinkelspiel), and overall writing, for reporting on the Alyx Herrmann murder case.

TBS falls into Division 7, for news outlets with three or fewer full-time staffers. It's the smallest division in the contest.

Emilie Raguso founded The Berkeley Scanner in 2022 to provide more robust, comprehensive coverage of crime and safety to Berkeley and the broader community.

Since then, her work has won local and national recognition, including a National Headliner Award for online local news coverage.

As of 2025, TBS averages about 290,000 monthly pageviews.

Read the award-winning coverage

Cyclist death prompts lawsuit, traffic safety questions

Yuan Cong never regained consciousness after a car crash on Nov. 25, 2022. Buddhist monks prayed by his side for months.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Ben Brown: Chef, loving uncle, ’champion of the people

“He stood up for his rights, he stood up for everyone else’s rights,” said his niece, Angie Perkins. “He just honored everyone.”

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Julia Elkin, struck by driver in Berkeley, has died

Elkin had a “deep passion for making our human and natural communities more resilient to climate change.” She was just 37 years old.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

A near-fatal bike crash may shift how Berkeley does street design

In 2016, a driver rear-ended Mike Wilson’s wife while she was biking home from work at UC Berkeley. The crash was “100% preventable,” Wilson said.

The Berkeley ScannerKate Darby Rauch

Berkeley street ballot measures EE and FF: How do they differ?

Residents can vote for both measures. If each gets more than 50%, the one with more votes will prevail.

The Berkeley ScannerKate Darby Rauch

Driver who killed pedestrian gets probation, GPS tracker

Barry Bull, then 65, had alcohol in his system when he hit Vincent Koehler in the crosswalk at San Pablo Avenue and Oregon Street in 2021.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso

Berkeley officials call for action after traffic fatality

Walk Bike Berkeley called the roadway “fundamentally unsafe” in a letter this week. Council is set to consider the subject Tuesday night.

The Berkeley ScannerEmilie Raguso