Death Valley Duty : Motorists Aren’t Boiling Mad, They’re Just Boiling When Officer Arrives

Dave Flegel has what might just be the hottest job in America.

Officially, he is a California highway patrolman responsible for 5,000 square miles of desert here; but to many, he is Death Valley’s good Samaritan.

He said it is the positive side of his job that he enjoys most: “Patrolling the busy freeways means mostly writing tickets for traffic violators. Everyone’s mad at you. Here, I spend most of my time making people feel good.”

Every week during the sizzling summer months--when temperatures can reach 125 degrees--he rescues dozens of travelers stranded when their cars break down.

“Heat takes its toll on vehicles this time of year from overheating, hoses and fan belts breaking,” said Flegel, 52, a 20-year veteran of the CHP. “I change tires all the time for motorists, and I do my best to help get them back on the road.”

He also handles several heat exhaustion cases each week. “Never had anyone die from heat exhaustion so far, but several have come close,” he said.

It is so hot here this time of year, the ravens walk around panting and sometimes lie on their backs in the shade of a palm tree to cool off.

“I carry eight gallons of water in my trunk for overheating radiators or for people to drink. I drink two gallons a day myself,” said Flegel, wiping the perspiration from his forehead and off his glasses.

During Flegel’s 7 1/2 years in Death Valley, he has encountered two suicide victims on isolated stretches of road and handled 40 fatalities from vehicle accidents.

On a recent afternoon, he was in Bad Water--282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere--and the temperature on Flegel’s car hood read 116 degrees. He said it is the only CHP car in the state with a thermometer on the hood.

“People are forever asking: ‘How hot is it?’ That’s why I put the thermometer on the car,” said the so-called “Highway Hermit,” who rarely sees another officer on his lonely beat.

He regularly patrols hundreds of miles of state highways and paved and dirt roads in Death Valley National Monument and southeastern Inyo County. He drives 200 to 400 miles a day during an eight-hour stint and is on call around the clock for emergencies.

This summer, 70% of Death Valley’s visitors have come from 26 foreign countries just to see what it is like at one of the hottest places on Earth.

Travel agents in their homelands sell package excursions to California featuring “a visit to Death Valley in the summer, the hottest place in the world, an experience you will never forget.”

Most Americans know better. They avoid the place like a plague this time of year.