CHP Tapes in Pileup on I-5 Under Review

Tapes of California Highway Patrol radio transmissions are being reviewed as part of a state investigation into the tragic Thanksgiving weekend Interstate 5 traffic accident that left 17 dead, state transportation officials said Thursday.

The tape recordings show that CHP officers were aware three hours before the tragedy that wind-driven dust was dramatically cutting visibility on portions of I-5, according to transcripts printed in the Fresno Bee Thursday.

“We’d better put out a traffic advisory,” one transcript from a CHP officer reads. “This wind is not dying down. In fact it’s picking up. It’s probably in the 40-mile-an-hour range at this time and we do have blowing sand and dust with visibility starting to diminish.”

Subsequent conversations between CHP dispatchers and other officers continued to focus on the dust problems on I-5 and on secondary highways 50 miles south of the collision site. State officials shut down the secondary highways because of dust before the grisly pileup.

In news conferences after the Nov. 29 tragedy, CHP Central Division Cmdr. John Anderson blamed the chain-reaction collisions on speeding motorists. He acknowledged there were dust storms, but claimed that his office never received prior reports of limited visibility at the scene.

A spokesman for Anderson, Sgt. Ted Eichmann, said Thursday that the radio transmissions reported in the Bee were primarily from CHP officers stationed 30 to 50 miles south of where the catastrophe occurred.

Bob Pipkin, spokesman for the state’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, said the transcripts are being studied as part of a state investigation initiated by Gov. Pete Wilson shortly after the accident. The investigation of the circumstances surrounding the incident, aimed at recommending new highway closure policies, is due to be completed by Feb. 3.

Meanwhile, a new round of dust storms hit sections of I-5 in the western San Joaquin Valley Thursday morning, with Caltrans officials announcing the temporary closure of a 20-mile segment in Fresno County. However, the officials later acknowledged that as a result of a series of consultations with CHP officers, the roadway was never actually closed.

“CHP has the final decision on that,” said Caltrans spokesman John Miller. “Steps were taken to start shutting the freeway, but the conditions were so variable, and similar conditions were existing on all the other roads along I-5, that we decided not to close it.”