Countywide : Halt to CHP Bus Citations Ordered

The California Highway Patrol has been ordered by a Wilson Administration official to stop citing overweight buses following charges that an Orange County line that carries mostly Latino dayworkers was being singled out unfairly.

“This is a victory for the passengers,” said John Catoe, operations manager for the Orange County Transportation Authority. “It’s not a victory of the OCTA over the CHP.”

The order, issued by Carl Covitz, secretary of business, transportation and housing, cited pending state efforts to change federal rules.

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) introduced a Senate resolution on Thursday that asks Congress to resolve the issue “so public transit operators can continue to serve the maximum number of passengers, in an economically efficient manner, without jeopardizing passenger safety or the integrity of road and highway systems.”

OCTA officials said they will try to amend part of the federal highway and transit program that exempts fire engines from the weight standards to include transit vehicles.

It was the combination of Bergeson’s action, plus an accusation that the CHP citation policy smacked of racism, that led to Covitz’s order to stop the citations, according to several state and county officials.

Covitz did not return a reporter’s telephone calls.

The citation issue arose last fall when a CHP officer in Orange County, with permission of his superiors, began pulling passengers off Line 85, which carries mainly Latino dayworkers between Santa Ana and South County.

The loaded buses, while exceeding per-axle federal weight limits, met other federally approved design standards that allow many more passengers than the weight limits permit.

OCTA officials had charged that buses here were being targeted unfairly considering that virtually every transit agency in the country is violating the same weight rules. Those weight rules are aimed at protecting the life of road pavement and not at ensuring passenger safety.

“Safety is not being compromised at all,” Catoe told OCTA board members this week.

State officials became concerned after bus passenger John Gabriels of Santa Ana appeared at OCTA’s board meeting on Monday and charged that the citation policy was racist since only buses carrying mostly Latinos were being stopped.

CHP officials had staunchly denied any wrongdoing and said CHP divisions in other parts of the state would be enforcing the weight limits as soon as they became familiar with the issue.

CHP Sgt. Bill Snell, who supervised bus weight enforcement in Orange County, was unavailable for comment Thursday.