Orange County CHP officers issue more than 150 citations in 4 hours
Officers cracking down on motorists taking advantage of Orange County freeways emptied of commuter traffic by stay-at-home orders handed out dozens of speeding tickets on Thursday, April 23, during a large California Highway Patrol enforcement operation.
Officials with Orange County’s three CHP offices reported handing out more than 150 citations, the bulk of which were for speeding, and giving out dozens more verbal or written warnings to motorists during a coordinated enforcement effort between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday.
With the amount of overall traffic on freeways plummeting in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of motorists going faster than 100 mph has skyrocketed 87% compared to the same time period last year, according to CHP statistics.
“One thing that hasn’t changed in all this is the speed limit, and a decrease in traffic has prompted some people to kick it up a notch,” said Mark Latulippe, an officer with the CHP’s Oceanside office, which coordinated the speeding enforcement operation with a dozen offices across the region. “It’s all about self-control for each driver, to keep an eye on that speedometer more often. This isn’t a license to speed or go how fast we want.”
“It’s a reminder we are out there and we are going to issue citations,” Latulippe said of Thursday’s operation.
Overall, officers taking part in the operation — which stretched from the Southern border to Kern County – reported handing out 441 citations and giving 108 warnings, CHP officials said. The highest speed ticketed was on a freeway in San Juan Capistrano, where officers cited one driver for going 112 mph.
In Orange County, officers with the Santa Ana CHP office reported giving out 101 tickets — and making one DUI arrest — during the operation, while officers with the Westminster office gave out 34 citations, and officers with the Capistrano office gave out 31 citations.
Officer Tino Olivera, who was among a dozen officers from the CHP’s Santa Ana office taking part in the operation, said he stopped an 83-year-old man going 91 mph on the southbound 55 Freeway, apparently heading to Newport Beach to visit his daughter.
“He didn’t realize what his speed was,” Olivera said. “He thought he was going 75 to 80.”
The overall number of crashes has dropped, officers said, but with higher speeds the crashes that do occur are often more serious.
“As you increase your speed you increase your chances of being involved in a traffic collision,” Olivera said. “We don’t have the everyday fender benders we had before COVID-19. We see less traffic collisions, but the ones we respond to will be bigger.”
Officers said it can be understandable when drivers not used to the light traffic go a bit above the speed limit. But, the officers added, there is no excuse for the higher speeds they are seeing.
“Nobody gets to a hundred accidentally,” Latulippe said. “I can see people say I was accidentally doing 75 or 80. But 100? No.”
Earlier in the week, officers with the Capistrano office reportedly arrested a driver with a suspended license who they caught going 165 mph on the 5 Freeway in San Juan Capistrano. According to the CHP, that driver had already lost their license for reckless driving.
“Whether we are writing citations or are just visible to the public in general, we want to slow folks down,” said Duane Graham, an officer with the CHP’s Westminster office.