New Police Detail Begins Crackdown on Problem Cyclists

The arrival of warm and inviting spring weather portends a perennial--and sometimes deadly--rise in motorcycle traffic throughout the state, and local traffic authorities are gearing up for the inevitable increase.

Starting Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division charged a four-officer detail with impounding the bikes of unlicensed motorcycle riders. “Once the weather gets nice, motorcyclists tend to come out in greater numbers,” said Lt. Alan Kerstein.

The new detail, which will patrol the San Fernando Valley through October and be supplemented about once a month by a high-powered task force of motorcycle officers on the lookout for reckless, inexperienced or unlicensed riders.

There was a similar crackdown last summer and early fall, when a task force impounded more than 600 motorcycles in the Valley and wrote more than 5,000 traffic tickets, Kerstein said. The task force regrouped for a one-day sweep March 13 and impounded 60 bikes, issued 75 citations and made five arrests, he said.

The timing of the crackdown is crucial because, for traffic officers, motorcycle accidents are a sign of spring.

Consider, for example, the 25,846 motorcycle-injury accidents that the California Highway Patrol recorded statewide in 1986.

Most accidents occurred between April and September--an average of 2,531 accidents a month. In the other six months of the year, the CHP recorded an average 1,776 accidents a month.

Statistics for 1987 were unavailable.

Inexperience Cited

The problem is inexperience, poor training and, in some cases, a certain amount of cockiness, said CHP Officer Jim Young.

“A lot go into dealerships, buy a motorcycle and go riding out without any training whatsoever,” Young said. When Valley Traffic officers stopped a young man who was driving recklessly last summer, for example, there were only 1.8 miles on the bike’s odometer.

The likely accident victims are casual weekend riders, not the all-weather, all-year motorcyclists who know how to steer and brake properly, Young added. Kerstein said that of 23 motorcyclists killed on Valley streets last year, 20 did not have motorcycle licenses.

With these grim statistics in mind, the crackdown launched Sunday aims at getting the unlicensed rider off the road. Police said many of these unlicensed riders have little formal training. Rather than writing the unlicensed rider a ticket--a common practice in the past--Valley traffic officers are exercising their right to impound the bike immediately.

Valid License

And this can happen “in front of his house or 50 miles from home,” Kerstein said.

The rider can only retrieve the motorcycle by producing a valid motorcycle rider’s license. If the bike is not claimed in 30 days, the impound yard can sell it. Very few motorcycles impounded in the crackdown have been sold, Kerstein said.

To get the license, the rider must take a written test and demonstrate riding skills to state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Poorly trained riders also are the target of the new California Motorcyclist Safety Program, which opened training centers in Reseda and Oxnard last month. A 15-hour course offered there, open to riders of all ages, has been mandatory since Jan. 1 for riders under 18 seeking a motorcycle license.

There are 39 such training centers throughout the state. A toll-free number--800-CCRIDER--has been established to tell riders where they can sign up for the course.

At a recent training session in a parking lot at Reseda High School, seven riders were put through their paces by Al March, an off-duty traffic officer with the Tustin Police Department. Shouting instructions and gesturing, he looked like a third-base coach giving signals.

“Hey, eyes up!” he shouted at one rider. To another, he advised: “Keep both hands on the handlebars.”

The program’s influence was obvious. The students watched with disgust when two boys, clad only in shorts, T-shirts and sneakers, raced their motorcycle down Victory Boulevard.

If the boys fell, their light clothing would offer little protection against scrapes and pavement burns. “They must like road rash,” said student Mike Waters.

Another student, 17-year-old Derek Shuster of Woodland Hills, said the braking techniques he learned in class a week earlier saved him that very day when, riding a motor scooter to Reseda High School, he skidded on some oil.

Riders of 17 often are involved in traffic mishaps. J.B. Moore, a spokesman for the California Motorcycle Safety Program, said CHP statistics show that almost half of all motorcycle accidents involve people between 15 and 24 years old.

Mulholland Highway, a popular roadway for motorcyclists, offers an extreme example of the problem. The highway, which starts at Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills and snakes its way through the Santa Monica Mountains to Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, is the CHP’s worst enforcement problem in the local mountains, Young said.

378 Injured on Highway

The rich scenery and challenging curves invite speed and sometimes produce disaster among the careless, he said. From 1977 to 1986, for example, 378 motorcyclists were injured in accidents on Mulholland Highway, according to CHP records. Of those injured, 172--nearly half--were between 15 and 24.

Young said such accidents typically involve motorcyclists who cross double lines, ride without helmets or race at speeds above their ability.

Alan Moskowitz, a 44-year-old television writer taking the safety course in Reseda, recalled the days when he rode like the men Young described. He said he was “your basic 22-year-old idiot” and rode with merry abandon--always without a helmet and often without a shirt.

Moskowitz gave up riding, but decided to take it up again when he learned of the safety course. As he looks back on his younger riding days, he comes to a succinct observation: “I’m surprised I lived.”