Re: OT - CHPs cracking down in South Bay
From: Tom Reynolds (kjtarcox.net)
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 17:02:06 -0800 (PST)
No secret handshake this time, huh Steve?
Too bad, maybe the radar detector wasn't on?
Tom
Tulsa
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Jenkins" <steve [at] stevejenkins.com>
To: "Tom Reynolds" <kjtar [at] cox.net>
Cc: "'The FerrariList'" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] OT - CHPs cracking down in South Bay


> The WSP (Washington State Patrol) is cracking down hard up here lately,
too.
> Got an 80 in a 60 ticket on Hwy 18 in the TR yesterday.... Good thing they
> didn't clock me in the F40 a couple hours earlier. :)
>
> SteveJ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dennis Liu [mailto:bigheaddennis [at] gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 8:26 AM
> To: Steve Jenkins
> Cc: The FerrariList
> Subject: [Ferrari] OT - CHPs cracking down in South Bay
>
>
> For all of our friends driving in the SF area...
>
> Vty,
>
> --Dennis
> E38, Boston
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ----
> Posted on Fri, Feb. 09, 2007
>
> LEAD FOOTERS, BEWARE -- HIGHWAY PATROL IS CRACKING DOWN ON SOUTH BAY
> SPEEDERS
> HIGHWAY PATROL IS CRACKING DOWN ON SOUTH BAY LEAD FOOTERS
> By Gary Richards
> Mercury News
>
> The California Highway Patrol is cracking down on speeders at a pace never
> seen before in the South Bay, issuing nearly 1,400 tickets last month. At
> that rate, the CHP would quadruple the number of tickets issued last year.
>
> A newly created five-trooper team is swarming a stretch of road every
> weekday, sometimes nabbing speeders twice on the same trip, and this isn't
> just some temporary tactic.
>
> The goal is to make the South Bay an area where flying down a freeway at
80
> to 90 mph is not tolerated. Despite severe staffing shortages, CHP
> commanders in San Jose are determined to change a disturbing fact:
Speeding
> is the main cause of two out of three highway deaths in the state.
>
> ``What we have out there is in essence a free-for-all,'' Lt. Spencer
Boyce,
> one of the CHP bosses behind the change in strategy, said. ``People figure
> if the speed limit is 65, then they can do 85. The reality is that speed
> kills. It's that simple, and we want to change that.''
>
> The early returns are impressive. The new unit issued 1,744 tickets in
> January -- 1,369 for speeding with the remainder mainly going to solo
> drivers cheating in the carpool lane or not wearing seat belts. The group
is
> on pace to issue more than 16,000 speeding tickets this year. Last year,
the
> entire San Jose division gave out 4,155 tickets for excessive speed.
>
> Tuesday, Lisa Basili was one of the unlucky ones. Officer Jason Morton
> clocked her at 83 mph on southbound Interstate 680 near Capitol Avenue.
>
> ``God, don't write me a ticket,'' pleaded Basili, who was returning to
> college in Monterey in her 1994 Buick with 125,000 miles on it. ``I'm
sorry.
> I won't do it again. Just give me a warning. I'm driving a Buick.
Please.''
>
> No mercy, for her or anyone else, on this day.
>
> Morton and four others no longer are assigned to patrol a particular
highway
> by themselves. Instead, they are teamed up to saturate one South Bay
freeway
> or expressway each weekday as part of the new crew, headed by Sgt. Bob
> Buckles.
>
> They sometimes work together, one officer radioing another farther down
the
> highway with four on motorcycles and one in a patrol car. Other times they
> stay on the same highway, but go after scofflaws separately. Some
motorists
> see a trooper on the shoulder busy writing a ticket and zoom off, thinking
> the officer is too busy and they'll never see another for miles, a
> reasonable assumption in the past.
>
> Surprise. ``We've given a person a ticket and three minutes later they are
> stopped again,'' officer Lance Hedrick said. ``They don't think there's
> going to be more than one of us out here. Certainly not five of us.''
>
> Most crackdowns in the past have needed special funding or overtime pay.
> When that money ran out, enforcement often eased or stopped.
>
> But not this crackdown. Officers' main duty is looking for speeders. No
> accidents to worry about, road rage incidents to deal with or other duties
> that often tie up a traffic officer.
>
> Each day Sgt. Buckles picks a road to target. Highway 101 on Monday,
> Interstate 680 on Tuesday. Highway 85 on Wednesday. A different road
today.
> Sometimes in the morning, sometimes late afternoon. Keep 'em guessing.
>
> ``It is a target rich environment,'' said Lt. Boyce. ``It's not like we
have
> to wait 30 minutes to get somebody speeding.''
>
> Try maybe three seconds. Tuesday around lunchtime, Morton pulled his black
> and white cruiser into the median on I-680 before Landess Avenue and
tracked
> northbound traffic with his Lidar unit, which shoots a narrow laser beam
at
> its target and can accurately pick out a speeder more than a half mile
away.
>
> ``This won't be long,'' he told the Mercury News reporter.
>
> Within four seconds, he jumped back in, hitting the accelerator hard to
> catch up to a gray Honda Accord flying by at 80 mph. It was Stacey Nixon's
> unlucky day.
>
> The 37-year-old San Jose woman grumbled about her fate.
>
> ``I think this is very unfair,'' she said, her tiny pooch Sammy wagging
his
> tail in the back seat. ``There are so many other terrible things they can
> get you for. I don't think speeding is that big a problem. People go a lot
> faster.''
>
> Oh my, do they. Up next, Mike Nguyen, 38, of San Jose who was late for
work
> at a Pleasanton restaurant. Speed: 86 mph.
>
> Want faster? Try Nicole Young of San Jose -- 90 mph near Jacklin Road.
> That's a minimum fine of $350.
>
> ``People get hurt when they drive too fast,'' she said with a sigh.
``Well,
> 90 is pretty fast. I don't think I was driving unsafely, but it's a
healthy
> reminder. I'm guilty.''
>
> Rhianna Vicini, 84 mph. Sung So, 80 mph. The five cops wrote 116 tickets,
> the highest number of any day so far in the new crackdown.
>
> Allen Hauptman of San Jose was tickled to see speeders and carpool
cheaters
> being ticketed on San Tomas Expressway recently.
>
> ``What pleases me the most is that the enforcement effort isn't just a one
> or two patrol-person effort,'' he wrote in an e-mail. ``Nope. These
> scofflaws are being pounced upon by a team of four to six motorcycle
> officers.''
>
> Ditto, said Pamela Yanne of Saratoga after the CHP flooded Highway 85
> between Almaden Expressway and Union Avenue two weeks ago.
>
> The CHP crew, she said, made drivers behave better, and the commute was
``a
> welcome sight to the usual stop-and-go, watching cheaters dart in and out
of
> the carpool lane and speeders weaving through traffic.''
>
> For years, motorists have lamented the absence of heavy patrols on state
> highways and expressways, for good reasons. The CHP's total of 66 patrol
> officers in its San Jose branch is down from 85 three years ago and from
119
> in 1969. Factor in those assigned for special duties from homeland
security
> to organized crime units, and there are 1,000 fewer cops cruising state
> freeways than in 1970.
>
> Ten new cadets may head to the South Bay later this year, but local
> commanders said they can't wait for them.
>
> ``We need to be proactive,'' Boyce said. ``We can't just react to what is
> going on.''
>
> The San Jose division is the first to employ the special unit. Don't be
> surprised if more follow suit, said CHP spokesman Mike Wright.
>
> ``You give an officer no beat accountability and tell them to go after
> speeders,'' Wright said, ``and it's like putting them in a candy store.''
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ----
> What is your reaction to the crackdown on speeding? Contact Gary Richards
at
> mrroadshow [at] mercury news.com or (408) 920-5335.
>
>
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