Bill Would Give Deputies Right to Check Trucks : Moorpark: The proposed legislation aims to curb the amount of big-rig traffic on California 118.

Legislation that would allow Ventura County sheriff’s deputies to conduct truck inspections in Moorpark as part of an effort to reduce the city’s heavy truck traffic has been introduced by Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks).

Only the California Highway Patrol now has the authority to conduct truck inspections. The agency operates a temporary weigh station on California 118 just outside Moorpark, but it is only open a few hours a week because of a lack of personnel, officials said.

McClintock said his bill would give sheriff’s deputies the authority to enforce state truck weight and safety laws on the portion of California 118 that runs through Moorpark. The city contracts with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department to provide law enforcement services.

McClintock said the idea for the legislation came from Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason.

“This was a pleasant surprise,” Lawrason said of McClintock’s bill. “He and I talked about this two or three months ago. It’s something very much needed in the city.”

McClintock and Lawrason said a large percentage of the 1,200 truckers who use California 118 on a daily basis do so to avoid the Conejo Weigh Station on the Ventura Freeway.

They said the trucks also create a safety hazard on the narrow two-lane highway, which accommodates more than 5,100 vehicles a day. The traffic figures are from a Highway Patrol study done last year.

McClintock said he is talking with CHP officials to work out details of the bill to ensure that proper inspection procedures are followed by sheriff’s deputies. The assemblyman said the measure will be reviewed by the Assembly Transportation Committee next month and probably will not come up for a vote for at least two months.

McClintock said he also is studying the possibility of getting a permanent weigh station built outside Moorpark in the near future.

He said there were plans for such a station to be built on the Ventura Freeway near the Santa Barbara County line but the project was scrapped because of environmental problems. McClintock said he is checking into the possibility of moving the station to the Moorpark area.

But CHP Lt. Claude LeMond said the agency has conducted surveys of truck traffic on the highway and found that most of it is generated by local agricultural businesses along the highway. He said that only a small number of trucks are using the highway to avoid the Conejo Weigh Station.

But Lawrason and McClintock disagree.

“There are certainly some agricultural trucks, but the guys I’m following are long-haul trucks,” said Lawrason, who drives California 118 every day to his job in Oxnard. “In my opinion, they are simply using the road to escape” the truck scales on the Ventura Freeway.

Moorpark officials said the connector link for the Simi Valley and Moorpark freeways should help reduce overall vehicle traffic on California 118. Construction on the connector link is scheduled to begin next month and is expected to take up to two years to complete.