Conscientious Cell Phone Users Are Extra Eyes of CHP

Dear Street Smart: On Labor Day morning, I was on the Riverside Freeway moving with the flow of traffic when a car passed at exceptionally high speed, changing lanes with little regard for other vehicles. Drivers were hitting their brakes and, fortunately, there was no accident.

Do I call 911 on my cellular or not? I thought about it for maybe 10 seconds and then called because what this individual was doing was jeopardizing the lives of everyone around. They took the call, said thank you and were very nice. My question, though, is how do they really feel about such calls? Do they really care? Would the CHP be able to catch this person? Probably not, but it sure would be nice.

Tom Sutro

Costa Mesa

You did exactly the right thing, according to Steve Kohler, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. While in most cases CHP officers are not able to respond to such calls quickly enough to actually witness the crime and make a stop, there are exceptions, especially when officers happen to be in the area. And sometimes, he said, reporting such behavior can be helpful to investigators later.

“If you called in,” Kohler said, “and told us, ‘Hey, there was a red Chevy driving recklessly that just passed us’ and 10 minutes later we come on a red Chevy that’s been in a crash, that’s certainly information that would be of interest to the investigating officer.”

On the other hand, he said, you should use some discretion in choosing when to call.

Definitely do call to report dangerous situations including reckless or drunk drivers and vehicles stalled at locations that impede traffic or place the occupants at risk. Also use 911 to call for a tow truck when your own car breaks down on the freeway, or if you see an accident.

But please try to make sure that the accident just happened before calling 911, Kohler said.

“With the proliferation of cellular phones,” he said, “it’s not unusual to get 100 calls on a single crash,” each of which has to be checked out to make sure that it’s not a separate incident. “That takes a great deal of time,” he said.

So if you see emergency vehicles on the scene, or if it looks like the accident occurred several minutes before, Kohler said, you probably can assume it has been reported.

“Obviously, we appreciate the extra eyes and ears that cellular phones provide,” he said. “If you use them responsibly, they are a benefit to everyone.”

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Dear Street Smart:

I’ve noticed that many of the newer freeway car-pool lanes have solid white lines on the car-pool lane side of the double yellow lines. This solid white line is not on the earlier designated car-pool lanes. Is there a vehicle code significance to this line?

William Gregory

Santa Ana

None whatsoever, according to Caltrans spokeswoman Rose Orem. The white striping along the double yellow lines simply is meant to accentuate the buffer. As to why the older lanes don’t have the white lines, it’s simply because highway workers are busy folk.

“Caltrans will upgrade the other areas as we can get to them,” she said.