Not So Fast! : School’s In, Police Out in Fountain Valley, as Drivers Learn a Lesson

If you drive a car, van, truck, motorcycle or ride a bicycle in the city, considered yourself the target of a zero-tolerance safety campaign to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities.

The message of the campaign, police say, is a simple one: Speed or violate other rules of the road and you’ll be cited.

The campaign, which doubled the number of traffic officers on the street, was initiated during the first week of school to encourage motorists to drive safely and to heighten awareness to an increasing number of deaths and injuries caused by traffic accidents.

During the next several weeks, the Police Department will assign up to 10 officers a day to enforce traffic laws and to get drivers to slow down.

Other law enforcement agencies, including the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Santa Ana and Irvine police departments, also have taken to the streets in greater numbers to try to prevent schoolchildren and cars from crossing paths.

“When school starts you pay attention to the areas near schools, particularly at the beginning of the school year,” Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said.

Santa Ana Police Sgt. Bob Clark said his department next week also will have extra patrols near schools.

“People seem to forget every year that school started and that there’s this massive number of kids,” he said. “This is the time of year to be extra cautious.”

In Irvine, Police Sgt. Brian Clifton said officers also have been assigned to focus on schools for the first couple weeks of classes.

Fountain Valley’s police are concerned about speeding, illegal lane changes, failure to stop for red lights or stop signs and drivers not wearing safety belts. The extra officers on the street come from a variety of divisions within the department.

“We’re doing anything we can do to make it safer out there and make it a safe passage through Fountain Valley so [motorists] get to their destination alive and well,” Police Chief Elvin Miali said. “We want to get the word out to people that we’re looking for voluntary compliance.”

Sgt. Kevin McKeown, head of Fountain Valley’s traffic division, said the campaign began because of several recent fatal accidents and because the number of injuries in crashes has increased in the city.

Within the past few months, 11 Orange County young people have died in accidents attributed to speed or alcohol or a combination of both, he said. Three teen-agers were killed in Fountain Valley last month.

McKeown said Fountain Valley has had six traffic fatalities since last November, the most in any 12-month period in the city’s history.

“People are dying on the street and fatal traffic accidents are preventable,” he said. “We have too many people dying in traffic-related accidents.”

McKeown also said the number of collisions in which people were hurt is increasing. So far this year, about 300 injury accidents have been reported, an increase of 20% over last year.

Police say Fountain Valley’s effort to crack down on traffic violators has been effective since it began Wednesday. On Thursday, about 60 citations were given to motorists, most of them for speeding, McKeown said. The number of tickets given out on a typical day is between 6 and 10.

Police were out again in force Friday morning with four officers patrolling Brookhurst Street near Mile Square Regional Park. One parked officer used a radar gun searching for violators while three other officers in patrol cars stopped speeding motorists. Nine tickets were handed out within a 30-minute period.

The drivers were traveling in excess of 60 m.p.h. on northbound Brookhurst Street, which has a 45 m.p.h. maximum.

Some drivers adamantly denied they were speeding: One man claimed he sped up only to change lanes, another contended he was driving slower than the speed limit and one woman said the car’s speedometer was broken.

“I’ve heard it all and I’ve seen it all,” Senior Officer Herb Poe said. “And most the time I let them rant and rave and let them feel like they’ve yelled at somebody.”

Police also were visible before school started at Roch Courreges Elementary. Seven citations were given to motorists for running stop signs and not wearing safety belts. One 11-year-old boy was ticketed for riding his bicycle on the wrong side of the street--a major cause of accidents, police said.

Even though drivers were cited, some agreed that the enforcement effort has merit.

Rick Pehoviack, 22, of Fountain Valley, who was cited for making a right turn without stopping at the red light, said the safety campaign “is a really good idea.”

“Maybe if people my age hear that more and more people are getting tickets, maybe more people would drive with precaution and it would possibly avoid a future tragedy,” he said.