Truck Crash Prompts Call for Routine Inspections : Roadways: South County residents suggest law requiring safety checks for big rigs. CHP official says extra inspections probably aren’t necessary.

South County residents who live near the scene of a recent spectacular crash caused when a truck lost its brakes on a hill are asking the county to consider mandatory brake inspections on trucks that travel in unincorporated areas.

In a letter to Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez last week, Ron Greek, president of the Saddleback Area Coordinating Council, suggested that the ordinance require the “safety inspection of all heavy-duty, truck-hauler braking systems every 10 days in certain high-risk areas,” such as hilly roadways heavily traveled by passenger vehicles. He suggested that trucks be issued stickers showing proof of inspection, and that those failing inspection be forced out of service or impounded.

“Due to the major projects under construction” in South County, “there is an extremely high level of heavy-hauling truck traffic including but not limited to concrete, lumber and sand and gravel trucks,” Greek wrote.

“The program we are recommending gives the community the maximum protection it deserves,” Greek wrote. “The fact that this accident caused only major injury and not loss of life was a miracle. We cannot let it happen again.”

But Vasquez and local law enforcement officials were critical of the letter.

“I think the letter was extremely premature,” Vasquez said. “Law enforcement spends a great deal of time doing spot checks and doing what they can to ensure that the roads are safe for drivers.”

Law enforcement officials admit that most trucks stopped by CHP officer Ralph Wood and Deputy Paul Harnett of the Sheriff’s Department, assigned to watch for potentially dangerous trucks in the South County area, don’t pass inspection. But they maintain that the risk to South County motorists because of truck mechanical failure is no greater than anywhere else in the county.

“You see the same junk here as you do up there,” Wood said, who is stationed in the CHP’s San Juan Capistrano branch.

“There is a natural prejudice toward trucks,” Orange County Sheriff Department Lt. George Johnson added. “People perceive them as dirty, and as obstacles that drop rocks and get in the way.”

The accident that triggered the concern happened Dec. 15 at Lake Forest Drive and Trabuco Road, when the driver of a truck hauling dirt lost control because of brake failure and started a chain reaction that ended with nine cars damaged or destroyed and 11 people injured.

After the accident, residents in El Toro and Lake Forest began calling local elected officials and demanding action, said Marcia Rudolph, a member of the Saddleback Coordinating Council.

“Everybody is all abuzz since the accident,” she said. “They are asking what we can do.”

Residents claim that a crackdown on the dusty, smoky trucks that share the South County roadways with shiny BMWs, Porsches and Volvos could have prevented the accident, Rudolph said.

But CHP Capt. Steven Malone, head of the San Juan Capistrano CHP branch, said that the bulk of truck accidents are caused by “pilot error,” in which either the trucker or driver of the car is speeding, making an unsafe lane change or other moving violation.

Trucks account for about 4% of roadway accidents, Malone said. “They are big. They are visible.”

He characterized the letter to Vasquez as “not very well thought out. It certainly was not researched.”

He added, “We have plenty of officers that spend all day looking for those types of things.”

But according to statistics provided by Harnett and Wood, a majority of trucks that are pulled over for inspection fail.

Since April, Harnett, who is assigned to the Mission Viejo Commercial Traffic Enforcement Unit, has cruised the streets of Mission Viejo in his van, stopping suspicious-looking trucks and checking for safety and administrative violations.

He has found plenty. Harnett estimates that only about one in 10 trucks passes his inspections. Most of the citations, he says, are for administrative problems, such as improper driver’s licenses and faulty records.

But in three stops Friday, Harnett cited drivers for mechanical problems. He said that trucks used in construction tend to develop mechanical problems faster than other trucks.

“These trucks are not only subjected to the dynamics of the road, but they are subjected to the rigors of the construction yard,” Harnett said. The trucks often suffer from metal fatigue, where joints and welds tend to deteriorate at a faster rate, he said.

One stop of a dump truck turned up leaks in an air compressor and the steering box, two punctured tires and an exhaust leak that channeled carbon monoxide into the corroding floor of the truck’s cab.

All of those problems could cause a traffic accident, Harnett said. “That’s why I am out here,” he said. The trucker was given a citation and ordered to correct the problems.

“The last thing I want to do is put a guy out of business,” Harnett said. “But the last thing I also want to do is force a road catastrophe.”

Although Harnett is only patrolling Mission Viejo, sheriff’s officials said that the department is considering expanding the program to include deputies in other cities.

The Sheriff’s Department was approached last year by the Mission Viejo City Council, which agreed to pay for the van and the extra cost to their law enforcement contract. Harnett began patrolling streets in April.

If the truck safety unit is expanded, the department will have the authority to inspect trucks in cities that are under contract with the Sheriff’s Department, Malone said.

The CHP has jurisdiction over the more than 400 miles of roads in unincorporated territory, Malone said.

Malone said that additional inspectors would be welcome, but that statistics suggest they are unnecessary. In fact, he said, truck-related accidents in South County have dropped 32% from last year.

But, he added, it would take legislative action to add more officers to the unit because of budget constraints. Persuading legislators would be difficult, he said.

“I just don’t see where there is as big a problem as there is a hue and cry about it right now,” Malone said.

TRUCK-RELATED ACCIDENTS IN SOUTH COUNTY

The following is a breakdown of truck-related accidents in south Orange County, comparing July-Sept. 1988 to July-Sept. 1989.

1988 1989 TOTAL TRUCK-RELATED ACCIDENTS 89 60 Truck at fault 46 34 Injury accidents 18 22

REASONS 1. Improper lane change, total 20 12 Truck at fault 12 9 2. Improper turn, total 18 7 Truck at fault 8 6 3. Unsafe speed, total 16 11 Truck at fault 9 6 4. Backing up 10 5 Truck at fault 10 4 5. Bad brakes 1 0 Truck at fault 1 0 6. Other 25 25 Truck at fault 5 9

Source: California Highway Patrol