CHP to Be Strict With Speeders : Enforcement: Agency’s new chief says higher limits, which will affect nearly all O.C. freeways starting Sunday, may result in fewer tickets because drivers will observe them.

The commissioner of the California Highway Patrol promised Tuesday that higher speed limits that go into effect on Sunday will be strictly enforced, but suggested that faster speeds may result in fewer tickets to motorists.

Newly appointed CHP chief D.O. “Spike” Helmick said he believes drivers will obey the new maximum speeds of 65 mph and 70 mph because they will feel comfortable at such speeds, just as they did before the limits were reduced to 55 mph nationally 21 years ago.

The new limits will take effect on most of Orange County’s 145 miles of freeway only after Caltrans crews affix new decals to speed limit signs Sunday, CHP officials said. Only eight miles--construction zones and freeway connector roads--will remain unchanged, Caltrans officials said.

“Some people may ignore the 55-mph speed limit in the meantime; they will be sorry if they do,” said Steve Kohler, a CHP spokesman in Sacramento.

Based on engineering and safety studies, the speed limit on 2,800 miles of selected California freeways will jump to 65 mph from 55 mph. Early next month, the limit will be boosted to 70 mph from 65 mph on another 1,400 miles of rural freeways. The 55-mph limit for big trucks will not be changed.

“I believe people are going to drive [at] these limits,” Helmick said at a news conference Tuesday. “There may even be a slight drop [in speeding tickets], quite honestly.”

CHP officials asserted that the new limits will be rigorously enforced with no cushion for creeping slightly over the limit.

“I wouldn’t suggest anybody try us for 67 mph,” Helmick said.

To help get the enforcement message across, actor Dennis Franz, who plays a detective on the TV show “NYPD Blue,” was enlisted to film a public service commercial urging drivers to obey posted speed limits.

By March, Caltrans officials will complete a reexamination of state highways--such as Ortega Highway, Imperial Highway and parts of Beach Boulevard--for possible speed limit increases. But a Caltrans official in Orange County doubts the study will lead to higher limits.

“We’ve already done speed zone studies in the last three years and they don’t warrant any speed changes,” said Joe Hacker, a Caltrans division chief in Orange County.

Under legislation signed into law last month by President Clinton, the 55-mph national speed limit--imposed by President Richard Nixon in 1974 during the energy crisis--was repealed, freeing states to set their own limits.

Exact numbers are unavailable, but transportation and safety experts agree that few drivers observe the national speed limit when the roads are clear. During a three-month period this year, California urban motorists who broke the speed limit law outnumbered those who didn’t 5 to 1, according to reports compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

Experts have debated whether higher speed limits cause more deaths.

Safety advocates decried the decision to raise national speed limits. Chuck Hurley of the Institute for Highway Safety estimated that increased speeds will mean 2,000 to 3,000 more traffic fatalities each year.

“We had hoped for better judgment from the states,” said Hurley, who based his projection on a 1987 study’s findings that highway deaths increased in rural areas after the limit was raised to 65 mph. “If this were aviation, and there was a proposal to raise speed limits on just coast-to-coast routes and all it was going to cost was two jumbo jets each year--how many people do you think would vote for that?”

But Charles Lave, UC Irvine economics professor, applauded the higher speed limits. Lave, who served on a 1984 national panel examining the national speed limit, dismissed traffic studies that contend the 55-mph speed limit is safer. Lave contends that the data are inconclusive.

Further, he said, the change will free CHP officers to concentrate on more important violations like drunk driving.

“We finally had the sense to do what the state highway patrol has been telling us to do for a long time, which is stop concentrating on speeding and concentrate on things that matter,” said Lave.

Faster Freeways

State authorities have designated 2,800 miles of California freeways as faster roadways, with a new 65-mph speed limit starting Sunday. Almost all of Orange County’s 145 miles of freeways will go from 55 mph to 65 mph.

Source: Caltrans

* Times staff writer Martin Miller contributed to this story.