Mothers Bearing Cameras Take On Speed Demons

The 800 block of San Clemente’s Calle Vallarta used to be a quiet, dead-end street where parents could let their children play with little fear of passing traffic.

But 2 years ago, the hillside street was opened to connect with a new housing tract, and Calle Vallarta became a blazing raceway, with frenetic commuters speeding up to 50 m.p.h. through the 25-m.p.h. residential zone, residents said.

The neighborhood’s baby population exploded at the same time, increasing from about eight to two dozen. Suddenly, residents said, there was a much greater danger to toddlers.

Enter the “vigilante mothers.”

First, the group of seven called police and begged for more enforcement of the neighborhood’s speed limit.

When the understaffed Police Department failed to assign more patrols, the mothers took it upon themselves to try to slow traffic.

Beginning about a year ago, they stood on both sides of the street and shouted at speeding motorists to slow down.

When this tactic was greeted with an occasional obscenity, one mother began videotaping offending drivers, threatening to turn the tape over to the police for prosecution.

Finally, 2 months ago, the mothers resorted to even more desperate measures. They scrawled their own speed limit signs--with such not-so-subtle messages as “Slow Down” or “You Are Being Videotaped”--and staked them out in their front yards.

City Began Crackdown

That got the city’s attention. Several weeks ago, workers painted double yellow stripes down the middle of the street to deter motorists from using both lanes while rounding corners on the hill. They also posted an official speed limit sign. Police began conducting radar checks on the street, with Police Chief Albert C. Ehlow himself sitting in on one occasion.

With the county’s explosive growth, other communities have had similar problems, with the frequency of accidents involving pedestrians increasing.

According to California Highway Patrol statistics, fatal county accidents in which pedestrians were killed by automobiles increased to 64 in 1988, from 51 in 1987. Automobile-related pedestrian injuries increased from 996 to 1055 in the same period, according to the CHP.

At UC Irvine, Dr. Phyllis Agran has been researching traffic-related injuries to children since 1980. Because some drivers zip through residential areas regardless of posted speed limits, Agran said it is important for parents to take special precautions with their children, especially toddlers, who are at a greater risk of being injured as traffic increases in once-quiet areas.

“Anytime you mix children with vehicles and increase the number of vehicles, you’re going to increase the risk of injury to children,” she said.

“The best way of preventing injuries is separating the children from the vehicles. Parents have to retrain their children that they cannot go in the street.”

Agran also suggested riding bicycles only on sidewalks and wearing helmets; taking children to play in parks, and dressing school-age children in reflective clothing if they have to be out in the dark.

On Calle Vallarta, thanks to the activism of residents, motorists are slowing down.

On April 5, Linda Smith, 44, mother of a 3-year-old boy and leader of the Calle Vallarta mothers’ group, appeared before the City Council seeking continued city support for her neighborhood’s speeding problem.

The council was receptive, with Mayor Brian J. Rice asking Smith to report back about whether the city’s speed control measures have helped to slow traffic.

“I’ve got to commend them,” Rice said of the mothers. “They definitely got our attention--and I’m glad.”

Marcia Markley, one of the mothers, said the vigilante tactics probably prevented a serious accident.

“If we hadn’t gotten as far as we had, there’s no doubt in my mind that there would have been a tragic accident,” said Markley, 38, mother of 8-month-old and 3-year-old sons. “The main thing is not to make people aware after the fact, when a child is fighting for life in a hospital.”

Hard to Keep Out of Street

But Markley said that while she and the other mothers impress upon their children the importance of not going into the street, that does not always keep them from doing so.

“You’re dealing with a child under 3 years old,” Markley said. “If they just happen to forget, that could be it. I mean, you’re talking paralyzed for life or killed, because of the way they (vehicles) fly through here--so fast I sometimes can’t even get the license plates.”

Calle Vallarta’s speeding predicament is typical of many neighborhoods in the rapidly growing south county, where dead-end streets are opened to provide access to new tracts.

In San Clemente, where residential growth has been exploding in the rugged hills in the east of town, Chief Ehlow said he has received speeding complaints from many neighborhoods.

None, he added, have become involved to the extent of the residents on Calle Vallarta.

A Few Days of Tickets

The customary police response to speeding complaints, he said, is to dispatch officers to a neighborhood for a few days to write tickets.

But Ehlow said the department, already understaffed by seven positions, does not have the manpower to spend much time on a street such as Calle Vallarta, with the city’s 40 police officers kept busy tending to the problems in areas more heavily trafficked by the city’s 37,000 residents.

“We go out and we work it as we can,” Ehlow said, adding that officers will return periodically to Calle Vallarta.

Calle Vallarta used to be so quiet, residents said, that children safely flew kites in the middle of the street. When the street was opened up, Smith said, motorists on their way to the new Seaside Estates tract atop the hill would “gun it” to build momentum for the final steep grade. Since the 800 block of Calle Vallarta lies on flat terrain between two steep grades, Smith said it became a favorite spot to accelerate.

Accident Dramatized Danger

Although there have been no serious traffic injuries reported on the street since the upper Calle Vallarta housing tract was built nearly 10 years ago, Smith said a non-injury accident 2 months ago dramatized the potential danger.

An elderly man, test-driving a new luxury-model automobile, reportedly had a blowout and lost control, crashing into a park area where children play. The vehicle sustained only minor damage, but Smith and other residents--who believe the man was speeding--said the accident could have been worse.

In recent days, residents and police agree, traffic has slowed dramatically. Ehlow said officers he has posted have cited violators only sporadically in recent days.

“I sat there myself for almost an hour,” Ehlow said. “I counted 16 cars going down the hill and five up the hill, and none were speeding.”

Several residents of the Seaside Estates tract above Calle Vallarta said the activism of their neighbors downhill had deterred them from speeding.

Slamming on the Brakes

“I find myself slamming on my brakes if I do 30,” said Lori Twilegar, 26, a Seaside Estates resident.

The Calle Vallarta mothers are still not entirely satisfied. Although traffic has slowed, Smith said she is worried that it will speed back up as soon as the city diverts its attention from the neighborhood.

And with summer coming and teen-agers out of school, Smith said the city needs to keep on top of the problem, perhaps by installing speed bumps, children-at-play signs and maybe another speed limit sign or two.

“My fear is,” she said, “that we will see this speeding continue.”