Wayward Golf Balls Anger Commuters : Thousand Oaks: City officials agree there is a problem. Thirty people have filed damage claims this year.

There is a section of the Ventura Freeway in Thousand Oaks that Stephen Mansfield goes out of his way to avoid.

The 23-year-old Camarillo man says he does not want to take chances anymore. Last month a wayward golf ball flew over the fence from the city’s Los Robles Golf Course and smashed the windshield of his car just north of Moorpark Road.

And he is not alone.

So far this year 30 people have filed claims totaling more than $9,000 against the city because their cars were damaged by wayward balls. One motorist demanded $9.14 after a ball hit the grille of his car and knocked off the label that says Mazda.

Last year the city paid motorists about $4,000 to settle their claims.

City officials agree that something needs to be done to address the problem.

“Someone could get killed, and that would be disastrous,” Mayor Alex Fiore said. “If the claims are valid and it’s really happening that many times, we need to take a closer look at it.”

City Councilman Larry Horner said, “Over the past 10 years, we’ve had problems with balls from time to time, but nothing like this. This is almost one a week.”

Fiore and Horner said they don’t know what caused the increase. They plan to ask the city staff to investigate. Perhaps the answer is a higher fence or more trees, they said.

Fiore suggested moving the second or third holes, the ones closest to the

freeway.

Operators of the course did not return telephone calls.

According to the claims, most of the incidents occur on the Moorpark Road exit from the freeway’s southbound lanes. One occurred across the freeway at the Oaks Mall, and a few took place on roads around the golf course.

Although no one has been seriously injured, one woman claimed that her seat belt injured her right shoulder when she swerved to miss a ball.

Mansfield said he was driving on the freeway just north of Moorpark Road on his way to work in West Los Angeles when he looked up and saw the ball coming his way.

“If it hadn’t happened in the morning when I’m not as stressed, I would have had an accident,” Mansfield said.

He swerved, and luckily no one was in the next lane, he said. The ball hit the windshield “like a rock traveling 130 m.p.h.,” splintering the glass.

Mansfield stopped at the golf course to report the incident and was told to file a claim with the city. Last week Thousand Oaks paid him $458.11 for the damage.

He said he now takes the Lynn Road exit and drives down Hillcrest Road, returning to the freeway when he is out of range.