ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Law in the Fast Lane

The outcome of a motorist’s lawsuit accusing Huntington Beach of operating an illegal “speed trap” on Pacific Coast Highway awaits a ruling by a federal court judge. But one thing has already been determined: The city knew the traffic engineering survey that is required every five years in order to use radar has been out of date for at least nine years.

That failure in municipal housekeeping already has cost the city money defending itself against the lawsuit because the motorist has based his case on this issue. An adverse ruling could cost millions of dollars more in this and similar cases.

It’s also clear from the depositions that several city officials, at least initially, viewed the lawsuit as “frivolous,” and, indeed, it was hard to have much sympathy for someone arrested three times for speeding, as lawyer Ernest J. Franceschi Jr. had been. But so lightly was the whole matter taken that it was three months after Franceschi filed his action--and thus put the city on notice that it was out of compliance with state law--before a new traffic survey was conducted.

Meanwhile, Franceschi, citing the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, also has argued that the city has operated an illegal speed trap and extorted money from unsuspecting drivers. As an aside, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who is hearing arguments in the lawsuit, has wondered aloud if the speed-trap case might be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back” in long-term efforts to reform RICO. That statute was designed to fight organized crime, but has been widely criticized as unconstitutional by civil libertarians.

But what’s clear already is that if the city is going to use radar to catch speeders, it had better keep its traffic studies up to speed, too. Traffic conditions change, and that’s the reason state law requires an engineering survey when radar is used to enforce speed limits. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, for speeding motorists or for cities trying to catch them.