Local : CHP Warns on Car-Pool Violations
The California Highway Patrol warned today that three officers will work overtime to ticket solo drivers and illegal lane changers in the car-pool lane that opens Wednesday on a section of the northbound San Diego Freeway from Westminster to Seal Beach.
And those tickets will cost twice as much. A new state law took effect Jan. 1 doubles the minimum fine for lane violators to $100, and sets the maximum fine for repeat offenders at $500.
Orange cones blocking motorists from using the completed, 4.5-mile section between Springdale Street and Interstate 605 will be removed late tonight, so that commuters can start using the lane Wednesday morning, officials said.
Capt. Mike Mikita said that, beginning immediately, the CHP will assign two extra officers to work overtime during the day and a third at night to ticketing solo drivers or those who enter and exit the special lane across the four-foot buffer area and double-yellow line that separate it from regular traffic. The CHP will also add another regular “beat” officer on the route for daytime enforcement.
“There’s no grace period,” Mikita said.
Mikita said he expects some traffic congestion Wednesday under the I-605 overpass in Seal Beach, where the car-pool lane gradually merges into a regular traffic lane.
Background story, Part II, Page 1.
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