CHP Goes Too Far Blocking Highway

The California Highway Patrol blocked all lanes of Highway 101 southbound in Ventura for several hours on Aug. 25 and rerouted all traffic onto surface streets. This naturally tied up traffic and caused at least an hour delay for each of several thousand motorists. The reason for the blockage was an early-morning accident in which a pickup truck went airborne after being sideswiped by another vehicle and crashed into a tree, killing the driver.

I question the need for the CHP blocking all lanes of a busy freeway for several hours after the accident, when the truck and the tree it hit were well off the road. It is unfortunate that this accident occurred and it certainly deserves a thorough investigation. However, I do not believe it justified the extensive disruptions for all other motorists, apparently just to make doing the investigation convenient for the CHP and other agencies.

This does not appear to be an isolated instance. The CHP should add some consideration for the impact on traffic flow to its accident investigation procedures.

RICHARD G. FULLER

Goleta

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CHP spokesman Dave Cockrill responds: “We understand the 101 is a main artery but when there is a fatality and there may be prosecution we send out a special team to take measurements and collect evidence. In this case there was evidence in all three lanes that needed to be collected, then Caltrans had to replace a guardrail and we also had to protect our officers.”

Cockrill said there have been numerous cases in which officers have been injured or killed by passing cars while investigating accidents.

“We work as quickly as we can, but we do a thorough job. We know most motorists would want us to do the same if it were their family member who was involved.”