Police Cite 560 for Speeding at Northridge Intersection

More than 560 motorists have been cited for speeding since police stepped up enforcement at an intersection where three motorists have died since Christmas Day, authorities said Tuesday.

In the most recent incident last week, two college students were killed at Corbin Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard in Northridge by an allegedly drunk driver whose car was traveling at 80 m.p.h., more than twice the speed limit.

“It solves half the problem,” said Rene Monestime, the boyfriend of Barbara Paull of Chatsworth, one of the women killed in Thursday’s accident.

“I see police officers giving tickets out all day, but at night, I don’t see any patrol cars,” said Monestime, who lives a few blocks from the intersection. “They need to be there between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. when people go from bars to bars, from parties to parties, or from bars to their homes.”

After studying traffic accidents at Corbin and Roscoe over a 10-year period, Los Angeles Traffic Engineer Ray Wellbaum said he couldn’t determine a pattern of when the accidents are occurring.

“There is no more problem there at noon than 8 a.m. It’s happening all around the clock,” he said. “It makes it difficult to deal with from an engineering standpoint.”

Wellbaum said that traffic signals at the intersection are working properly and that the type of traffic control is appropriate. He added that he will review police reports to see if witnesses’ statements can help find a solution.

“This (intersection) concerns me because the number of fatalities appears abnormally high,” he said.

Los Angeles police will continue to patrol along Corbin and Roscoe until they see a noticeable decline in speeding violations, Police Sgt. Mel Cunningham said.

“But one or two weeks later, at some point, the speed will creep back up again,” Cunningham said. “It will take continual enforcement to remind people to slow down.

“Some people are oblivious to police presence,” he added. “The officers would point a radar gun at them and they would speed anyway.”