Legislation Calls for Unmarked CHP Cars : Panel OKs Bill to Catch Speeding Truckers

The Assembly Transportation Committee resurrected legislation Wednesday that would allow California Highway Patrol officers to use unmarked patrol cars in an effort to catch speeding truck drivers.

In an 8-1 vote, the panel sent the bill, which is backed by the trucking industry, to the full Assembly.

Democratic members of the committee had blocked the bill, by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), last month--assigning it to an obscure subcommittee that has never held a hearing on any legislation. But Seymour won support by amending the measure to guarantee that it will not reduce the number of black-and-white CHP cars or uniformed officers patrolling highways.

Seymour said he also had to agree “to make a public apology” to Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove), whom he angrily denounced last month when the bill was referred to his subcommittee on CHP activities.

CHP officials say truck drivers, using citizens-band radios and extended views from high up in their tractor-trailer rigs, are openly defying speed limits and officers are virtually powerless to catch them.

“It is not a fair game anymore,” Seymour said. “. . . They know where Smokey (the CHP) is all the time.”

Seymour’s bill calls for a yearlong experiment in which 15 white squad cars--without visible light bars and bearing only door insignias--will be used on highways with the primary objective of catching truckers. The white cars had been reserved in the past for car-theft investigators and high-level patrol administrators and supervisors.

The program will use officers already assigned to the CHP’s commercial trucking enforcement division.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), chairman of the Transportation Committee, said he would not have allowed the measure to be removed from subcommittee if Seymour’s bill would reduce activity by regular CHP officers.

According to a Transportation Committee study completed earlier this year, fatal accidents involving commercial trucks have increased 30% during the last two years and injury accidents have increased 26% in the same period. Seymour said speeding was a factor in more than half of those accidents.

“I’m just trying to find a way to slow them down,” Seymour said.

Opponents of Seymour’s bill said the best way to slow down speeding truckers and other motorists is to have CHP officers be seen.

“It is just a little bit sneaky to me,” Assemblyman Steve Clute (D-Riverside) said, referring to Seymour’s bill.

Although truck drivers oppose Seymour’s bill, the California Trucking Assn., which represents truck owners, pushed the measure as preferable to other truck-safety bills that called for stricter enforcement and tighter controls on overweight trucks.

Robinson, who was in Orange County Wednesday, did not attend the hearing. But Seymour said, “I’m prepared to make my public apology whenever it is appropriate.”

Robinson said he never intended to kill Seymour’s bill, and changes that made it acceptable to the committee “could have been worked out last time . . . had there not been short tempers.”