‘Polar Bear’ Puts Chill on Truckers Driving in Moorpark : Highways: CHP officer is on the prowl for drivers using California 118 to dodge the mandatory scales and inspection station on the Ventura Freeway.

The truckers roaring along California 118 through Moorpark refer to Officer Dave Webb as the “Polar Bear” on their CB radios.

For the past three weeks, Webb has been cruising along the route in his all-white California Highway Patrol car, putting the chill on truckers for safety violations and speeding.

His patrol is meant to stop truckers from using the route to dodge the mandatory truck scales and inspection station on the Ventura Freeway.

“I didn’t know until I started working out here just how bad it is,” Webb said as trucks buzzed past him. “Now I see what everyone was complaining about.”

Webb’s patrol is also part of a compromise offered by the CHP to stave off legislation--pushed by Moorpark officials--to turn truck inspection duties over to local deputies.

For years the city has been plagued by hundreds of trucks roaring down California 118, which cuts through town.

Some of the truckers use the route to get around the inspection station, and others simply use the route to avoid the steep Conejo Grade or because it is a faster way to get to the San Fernando Valley.

Whatever the reason, city leaders said all that truck traffic feeding directly into their town is dangerous.

They have tried at least three times in the past five years to get state authorization to allow local deputies to set up an inspection station. The hope was not only to improve truck safety, but also to cut down on truck traffic through town.

Yet each time city officials went to Sacramento, their efforts were shot down by opponents upset about locals meddling in interstate trucking.

One of the most vocal opponents of the proposals has been the California Highway Patrol, said Mayor Paul Lawrason.

The CHP, which has sole authority for truck inspections on state highways, was concerned about a local agency conducting inspections of interstate trucking, which they said could jeopardize federal funding for the highway.

But the litany of complaints about hazardous conditions on the route accompanying the city’s latest effort for legislation seems to have brought the CHP around, Lawrason said.

In a letter to the mayor sent in early May, CHP Commissioner Maurice J. Hannigan said that in addition to spot truck inspections on the route, he was assigning a specially marked patrol car that will target trucks violating safety rules.

Lawrason was pleased by the promise.

“This is the first time we’ve every gotten a response like this from [the CHP],” he said. “It’s the kind of support we’ve been looking for, for some time.”

City officials with the help of Assemblyman Nao Takasugi’s office have been in negotiations with CHP officials who hope the new patrol will avert the need for new legislation, a local CHP spokesman said.

The hope is that by simply adding the specially marked patrol car, fewer trucks will use the route and the trucks that do, will be in safer condition.

During his patrol on Thursday, Webb said he had no problem finding trucks that are violating safety laws. Of the roughly 12 or 13 trucks he pulls over each day, at least eight or nine are cited for violations, he said.

“It’s pretty easy to find a violation,” Webb said while inspecting a truck loaded with frozen squid in route from the Oxnard docks to Las Vegas.

Webb cited the driver, George Bugg, 61, for a burned-out headlight, a worn-out tire, and a log book that had not been filled out--truckers are supposed to log all the hours they are on the road, showing that they take breaks to sleep every 10 hours.

“What we’re hoping is that by being visible, truckers will get the word out that we’re here, and the public will see that we’re doing our job,” Webb said.