REGIONAL REPORT : CHP Stealth Cars Target Truckers : Highway safety: Officers in inconspicuous vehicles watch, stop and cite big-rig drivers for speeding and other violations on freeways.

It was the last load of the day. Paul Razo was lumbering west on the Riverside Freeway in his chunky big rig with double trailers, surveying the road ahead through sunglasses. Like any other vigilant motorist, Razo was also keeping an eye out for Highway Patrol cars lurking in the midafternoon traffic.

Not a black-and-white to be seen. Razo let the truck’s speed climb--62 m.p.h., 63 m.p.h., 64 m.p.h.

Then it happened. First the familiar siren, then the red light. A Highway Patrol car was right on his tail. But where, Razo wondered, did he come from?

Pulling his big rig over, the trucker quickly discovered this was no ordinary squad car. Instead, there sat an inconspicuous, gold-painted vehicle that looked pretty much like any other road-worn sedan.

He’d been nabbed by the so-called Stealth car.

In recent months, a fleet of the well-camouflaged vehicles, which come in more than half a dozen colors to blend in on car-clogged freeways, have been deployed up and down the state by the California Highway Patrol in pursuit of a principal target: big-rig trucks.

The cars swoop up behind unsuspecting truckers, and uniformed officers dish out tickets for speeding, unsafe lane changes and the like. Officers also do spot checks for mechanical problems such as leaking air brakes or faulty taillights.

It’s all part of an effort to deflate the ballooning number of accidents caused by trucks. Injury-causing and fatal accidents in which trucks were at fault in California climbed nearly 68% between 1982 and 1988.

“Truckers can easily pick out a normal black-and-white, then they get on their (citizens band) radios and tell each other where it is,” said Sgt. Bill Snell of the Highway Patrol’s central Orange County office in Santa Ana. “What this does is allow us to basically get lost in the traffic.”

Even the trucking industry supports the effort.

“Truck speeds are a major cause of truck-related accidents,” said Karen Rasmussen, a spokeswoman for the California Trucking Assn., a trade group representing 2,500 trucking firms in the state. “The responsible truck operator is being hurt by those truckers who are not responsible. This is another tool to help.”

But out on the road, the reviews can be mixed. Some truckers say the new cars give the CHP an unfair advantage.

“People are really angry because they can’t tell it’s a CHP car until it’s right on your tail,” said Razo, who had heard about the new vehicles long before he got his ticket. “They’re really tough. But we just try to keep each other informed. First thing in the morning, whoever sees him lets everyone else know on the CB.”

Like them or not, the cars are here to stay. Orange County has three, as does San Diego County. In Los Angeles County, eight are on the road. Ventura County has one and Riverside County, two.

So far, the CHP vehicles, which were playfully nicknamed “the Stealth car” by wags at the San Diego office of the Highway Patrol, have proved a formidable weapon against troublesome truckers.

During a yearlong pilot program in 1987, the cars were credited with helping to reduce the number of truck-caused injury accidents in five spots across the state by 11.2%. Fatal accidents plummeted by 33%.

Such heady results persuaded state officials to begin rolling out a phalanx of the cars in March, with the last of the 68 vehicles scheduled for deployment later this month.

Although statewide statistics are not available yet, officers say they can already see a difference. In central Orange County, truck-caused accidents fell more than 17% from July through September compared to the same period the two previous years.

“Most people I pass in this car do a double take,” said Officer Jim McClelland, who patrols central Orange County freeways in one of the new CHP units.

And no wonder.

They come in blue, green, brown, white and other colors to match regular vehicles. The Santa Ana office got one of the first cars, a regular Highway Patrol cruiser painted gold, its overhead flashing lights removed and other equipment relocated.

Later models are a bit more sophisticated. Conspicuous short-wave radio antennas have been removed, the shotgun is hidden below the dash and various emergency warning lights are more adroitly concealed. They also have CB radios to monitor the chatter among truckers.

“These are not your typical Dodge Diplomat types of police vehicles,” noted Officer David King of the Highway Patrol’s Los Angeles office. “They’re Mustangs, LTDs. I’ve even heard they may have a Taurus out there. It makes it a lot harder for them to pick us out of the crowd.”

Although all of the cars still carry the traditional white-colored door panel with gold Highway Patrol seal, they are almost indistinguishable from the rumbling horde on the freeway to a trucker peering in a jiggling side mirror.

One recent afternoon, McClelland headed out with his Stealth car to troll for truckers. Moments after pulling onto the freeway, the officer saw a brand-new truck rolling along with no mud flaps or license plate.

McClelland pulled up alongside, but the driver rolled on, blissfully oblivious to the Highway Patrol car at his elbow.

“He doesn’t even have a clue I’m back here,” McClelland noted.

Then he hit the siren. Truck driver Tom Benner of Whittier pulled the rig over and hopped out.

“I had no idea he was back there,” said Benner, who was given a ticket for failing to have a temporary license plate on the truck, which he was transferring to a local dealership. “I’ve seen several of these cars on the road, but didn’t know what they were for.”

Benner wasn’t wild about getting a ticket, but suggested that the new CHP cars “should help make the road safer for us guys who are obeying the speed laws by keeping those guys who are breaking the law off the road.”

While the officers in the new camouflaged cars focus on curbing the big tractor-trailer trucks that pose the greatest accident risk, they don’t hesitate to pull over cars being driven recklessly or well above the speed limit. In addition, the special patrols help out disabled vehicles.

McClelland said, however, that most of his tickets are passed out to drivers of the big rigs.

“I’ll be told by truckers I’m writing up for speeding that they were being passed up by cars when I pulled them over,” McClelland said. “But that doesn’t matter. I’m here to stop trucks and reduce the number of accidents. That’s my whole focus.”

He has had a few disappointments. So far, McClelland said, he’s had a tough time reining in all the speeding truckers on the San Diego Freeway in Orange County.

“Most truck drivers are courteous, professional people just out to make a living,” he said. “But after they’ve been sitting in traffic, some of them begin to push it to make up for time lost.”

STATEWIDE TRUCK-RELATED ACCIDENTS

The CHP has deployed its new “stealth” car in the wake of a marked increase in truck-related accidents during the past decade.

Fatal Accidents

‘89: 159

Injury Accidents

‘89: 5,545

In 1989, these were the prime reasons for truck-caused accidents that resulted in injury or death.

Fatal Injury Reason Accidents Accidents Excessive speed 48 1,929 Changing lane unsafely 17 947 Improper turning 14 530 Failure to give right-of-way 11 500 to auto Running stop signals or signs 11 241 Following too closely 1 221 Driving on the right side 12 209 of the road Driving under the influence 16 149 of alcohol Others 29 819

Source: California Highway Patrol

Compiled by DALLAS M. JACKSON