Activists Call for Lower Speed Limit Near Checkpoint : Illegal aliens: A coalition met to discuss proposals for reducing highway hazards to those crossing freeway.

Alarmed by the rising number of illegal aliens being killed by motorists on Interstate 5, human rights activists Friday called for a reduction in the speed limit in the danger zone and vowed to press government agencies to move more quickly to find solutions.

The call for action came during a meeting of the Orange County Coalition for Immigrant Rights & Responsibilities, whose members decided to join forces with human rights activists in San Diego to end the carnage on the California highways leading out of Mexico. There were more than a dozen coalition members at the meeting, which was also attended by two consultants for the state Department of Transportation.

Since January, 10 immigrants have been killed near the checkpoint just south of the Orange County line as they were trying to avoid detection by Border Patrol agents. Officials have estimated 33 pedestrians have been killed there since 1987.

“It’s going to take the coordination of many groups and many ideas coming together,” said Roberto Martinez of the American Friends Services Committee, a human rights group based in San Diego. “One of the main obstacles we have had over the last year is jurisdiction. Nobody wants to take responsibility.”

He gave Caltrans credit for having installed warning signs and lights for motorists along the freeway where the deaths have occurred. But, Martinez said, Caltrans has other less practical ideas such as designing fluorescent signs to hand out to people as they cross from Mexico into California.

In a telephone interview after the meeting, Caltrans spokesman James L. Larson, who is with the San Diego district office, said his agency is frustrated that other government agencies such as the Border Patrol have failed to come up with real solutions.

“For it not being our problem, we have ended up with all the responsibility, and, frankly, we feel frustrated with it ourselves,” Larson said.

Among the recommendations approved by the coalition Friday is a plan to ask Catholic churches on both sides of the border to help warn people about the dangers of California freeways.

Border Patrol spokesman Ted A. Swofford, who is with the Border Patrol office in San Diego, said that would not help because immigrants tend to listen more to smugglers, who advise them to cross the freeway to avoid detection by authorities.

“We hope it works, but we are doubtful,” Swofford said of the proposal.

He said that the only workable solution would be to build a 10-foot-high barrier along the freeway median to keep immigrants from trying to cross.

Robert A. Emry, associate dean of the School of Communications at Cal State Fullerton and the lead researcher on the issue for Caltrans, addressed that issue during the meeting. “Some of those fences and so on become barriers that put persons in danger themselves,” Emry said.

Coalition members supported a recommendation to push for having the speed limit near the checkpoint reduced to 45 m.p.h. Caltrans officials say the average speed through the zone is 72 m.p.h. They also backed a suggestion to insert perpendicular grooves in the roadway near the area. The grooves create a buzzing sound as drivers pass over them, prompting them to slow down.