O.C. Drivers Act Fast on Change in Speed Limit

As usual, Orange County’s freeways were teeming with motorists Sunday--red Porsches, white Camaros and black BMWs racing along at 65 to 70 mph.

And there was Officer Bill O’Hair of the California Highway Patrol keeping right up with them, offering not a peep from his mighty siren, nor a single flash from his rooftop lights.

At least for one day, the higher speed limit that went into effect across Orange County and the rest of the state appeared to be having a predictable effect. Motorists cruised along as they always have, except now they were doing so legally.

The changes did mean more work for Caltrans crews, who spent the day affixing decals to speed limit signs, raising the legal limit from 55 mph to 65 mph on all but eight miles of the 145 miles of freeways that crisscross Orange County.

But for Highway Patrol officers, the higher speed limits appeared to make their jobs only slightly more hectic than that of the Maytag repairman.

“Maybe folks aren’t aware 65 is here yet,” said O’Hair, rolling along in his black-and-white Crown Victoria. “Maybe they’re aware I’m here, or maybe they’re just Sunday drivers. But it just may be that [65 mph] is a speed folks in Orange County are comfortable with.”

O’Hair said that on average he writes five to 10 speeding tickets a day. But by the end of his eight-hour shift patrolling the San Diego, Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways, he had written just one. At 10 a.m., he cited an 18-year-old for driving 75 mph on the Orange Freeway.

“He was heading home and he said he had his stereo on,” O’Hair said. “The change in the speed limit was probably lost on him.”

Other officers returning to CHP headquarters in Santa Ana from their midday shifts offered similarly humdrum accounts of their workdays. Officer Chris Kelly said he didn’t write a single speeding ticket, and Officer Ron Stott said he wrote just two.

“You could tell the traffic was faster today,” Stott said. If the limit were still 55 mph, he added, “I would have written at least five more speeding tickets.”

One of the motorists he did stop for speeding appeared genuinely shocked, Stott said.

“I thought the speed limit was 65 mph now,” Stott recalled the man saying. “I said, ‘Yeah, but you’re doing 80.’ ” To which the man replied, “Well, that’s pretty close.”

CHP officials had no statistics on whether driving rates or issuance of tickets were markedly different, saying only that the first day was fairly quiet and uneventful as Sunday drivers in many areas appeared to keep the traffic flow close to the limit.

Despite the dearth of tickets in Orange County, the new law sped to reality with surprising force in other areas of the Southland.

“Seems like [the speeders] are more flagrant out there today. I’ve got people just passing right by me,” said David Kajiwara, who patrolled the west San Fernando Valley on his CHP motorcycle.

He had given out about 15 speeding tickets toward the end of his shift, and he said many more deserved the same treatment. “Nobody’s paying any attention to the signs,” he said.

The confusion might have been understandable.

Caltrans began changing some “55” signs in the morning, offering photo opportunities for the media to chronicle the passing of a slower age. Pop star Sammy Hagar, who groused in a 1980s hit that “I Can’t Drive 55,” even helped change one sign Sunday along Highway 101 in Santa Rosa.

But state officials do not expect to get to all the signs until today. And until the new limit is actually posted on any given stretch of road, CHP officials cautioned, the old speed remains in effect.

A total of 2,800 miles in California will be raised to 65 mph, including nearly 300 miles in Los Angeles County. Some congested areas of the Southland will remain at 55 mph, while changes in other stretches will be considered over the next several months.

The 55-mph speed limit was imposed by President Richard Nixon in 1974 in the wake of the first Arab oil embargo. Legislation signed into law last month by President Clinton repealed the 55-mph maximum, freeing states to set their own limits.

Many drivers and CHP officials alike said they think the new limit simply reflects the reality of the roadways, legalizing what many motorists have been doing for years anyway.

“Hallelujah! I think it’s the best thing they could have done,” Ventura resident Gregory Johnson said as he drove the Ojai Freeway on Sunday with his 5-year-old son, Dylan. “Everybody’s going 65 anyway. . . . It won’t change the way I drive. I just won’t get a ticket for going my regular speed--65.”

But some motorists acknowledged misgivings, voicing agreement with national safety experts who predict that higher speed will mean more fatalities on the roadways.

Said Willie Donovan, a professional truck driver whose car died on the Ventura Freeway: “They shouldn’t have done that. I think there are going to be more accidents. . . . I just feel sorry for those who get hurt.”

Highway Patrol officers were mixed in their assessments of the new law. “Now people are going to expect that they can go 75 or 80 mph,” Stott said. “I think 70 is unsafe.”

But O’Hair said he welcomes the change and thinks it might even create safer road conditions.

Traffic tends to travel at about 65 mph because “that’s a comfortable speed,” he said. “If everybody’s going 65, the possibility of a collision is decreased. The problem comes when you have somebody going 5 to 10 mph slower than the limit, with others going 20 mph faster.”

O’Hair and others acknowledge that they commonly allow motorists a cushion of up to 5 mph over the speed limit, but said they hope motorists will abide by the new limit and not treat it as an invitation to hit the gas pedal harder than ever.

After a largely uneventful day, officers said they were encouraged that drivers were showing some restraint. But the officers also said they are realistic and wonder how long the era of fewer tickets will last.

“I think of it as a honeymoon period,” O’Hair said.

Times staff writers Eric Lichtblau, Linda Friedlieb and Jeannette DeSantis contributed to this report.