Checkpoint Problem

Shades of the past. Seems like only yesterday when the checkpoint was located on a four-lane road called El Camino Real. There was a series of several tragic deaths as a result of the congestion and hazard caused by the vehicular “border checkpoint” inspection. Shortly thereafter, an eight-lane Interstate 5 materialized and driving north on four lanes was safe again.

I drive this “alley” to work daily, along with many, many others. Every day at about 7 a.m., we start the aggravating, stop-and-go routine for inspection. But for what?

Many times each week, after clearing the checkpoint, I witness the start of a cops and robber high-speed chase into San Clemente, which sometimes ends in injury and tragedy. On many more occasions, about one or two miles past the checkpoint, we see cars stopping to let out their illegal passengers, who start their walk northward with no Border Patrol agents in sight.

On Sept. 24, a 22-year-old Oceanside woman was killed when her car was rear-ended by a speeding motorist jockeying for position. Others were hospitalized.

Two days earlier, a migrant pedestrian was killed trying to cross I-5 just north of the checkpoint. This raised the 1990 pedestrian death toll in the vicinity of the checkpoint to 12 and, for the past three years the total is 34. Since 1987 at least 100 pedestrians have been killed on area freeways.

The San Clemente checkpoint bothers me because it is a hazardous situation created by the U.S. Border Patrol. The daily volume of northbound traffic on I-5 being goose-necked to two or three lanes at the checkpoint creates an enormous hazard potential. It is an inefficient and expensive way to identify and snare a few illegal immigrants.

Relocating the checkpoint may merely transfer the problem to a different site. Rather than reducing the number of inspection lanes northbound, four, or possibly five, lanes should be available to accommodate the ever-increasing volume of vehicles. This would be a safer and more humane operation.

It is both sickening and sad to witness the loss of life and property under these circumstances.

GEORGE BUZZELLI, Escondido