In 2017, eight people died in the aqueduct that passes through San Bernardino County’s Victor Valley, which includes the High Desert cities of Hesperia, Victorville and Adelanto and the unincorporated communities of Baldy Mesa, Phelan and Pinon Hills. The deaths comprised 57 percent of the 14 people who died in the aqueduct in San Bernardino County over the past five years, according to autopsy records and coroner’s reports.