Police Tout Results of Speeding Crackdown

A monthlong crackdown on speeding motorists in the western San Fernando Valley is believed by Los Angeles police to be at least partly responsible for fewer traffic fatalities in the area over the past four weeks.

“It think [the program] has been very successful,” said Capt. Harlan Ward of Valley Traffic Division. “People appear to have gotten the message out there.”

The deployment of traffic enforcement officers was tripled in May after a string of fatal accidents, including five deaths in Woodland Hills on May 5. At that time, traffic accidents in the San Fernando Valley had killed 47 people during 1995--22 in the West Valley alone, according to LAPD statistics.

Since the increased police presence, there has been only one additional traffic death in the West Valley and three overall in the San Fernando Valley. “I would hope that the aggressive enforcement had something to do with it,” Ward said.

Officers have issued about 250 traffic citations per day--about twice their average rate--since the program began, Ward said. Meanwhile, police also stepped up their educational efforts in local schools and distributed traffic safety material at checkpoints through the Valley.

The temporary checkpoints include an electronic sign that can display the speeds of passing motorists. It is scheduled to be set up next week near the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Paxton Street with a message reminding parents to use child safety seats.

Although many speeders were ticketed in the initial days of the stepped-up enforcement, the number dropped in recent weeks. “We’re not getting the people that we were,” Ward said. “People are slowing down or are at least acknowledging what we’re doing.”

The last fatal accident in the West Valley occurred Tuesday. At about 10 p.m., a 49-year-old Woodlands woman was struck while crossing the street near the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Paralta Avenue. The driver, a 26-year-old Tarzana man, left the scene of the accident but turned himself in to police an hour later.

Authorities have not decided whether to prosecute the driver.