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Sobriety Stops Slow Drivers but Speed Up DUI Arrests

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Dear Street Smart:

What’s the deal with these sobriety checkpoints they hold around Ventura County with more and more frequency?

It seems like every time I’m in a hurry to get someplace on a Saturday night, there’s a backlog of cars waiting to pass through one of these slow-moving checkpoints.

What are my rights if I’m stone-cold sober but am forced to wait as much as 15 minutes only to smile and wave at the patrol officers blocking traffic?

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I don’t want the police to think I’ve done something wrong, but several times in recent years I just don’t have time for the traffic checks. Can I turn around without fear of getting interrogated?

Randy Williamson, Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

For more than five years, police have been using sobriety checkpoints as a way to combat drunk or impaired driving--a major cause of traffic accidents and deaths all across the country.

The Oxnard Police Department most frequently uses such stops in Ventura County, employing them almost monthly.

According to Cmdr. John Crombach, drivers have every right to turn around when they see a DUI checkpoint ahead. But beware, officers also have every right to question someone avoiding the checkpoint.

“The law said you have to provide the motorist a way out, so we post signs as far as 1,000 feet from the checkpoint, and there is a left turn that allows the motorist to go around,” Crombach said.

“Recent court decisions now say we don’t have to give them a way out, but we still play by the old rules,” he said. “We’re not trying to trap anybody; we’re trying to catch the drinking and impaired drivers.”

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Oftentimes, Crombach said, when patrol officers set up the checkpoints, they position someone at the left-turn exit to check the appearance of drivers skirting the interview.

Not surprisingly, he said, that’s where many arrests are made.

Law enforcement officials say the tactics are worth the inconveniences they may cause sober drivers because lives are saved.

“We extend tremendous apologies to those people we’re delaying, but this is something we have to address,” Crombach said. “We’ve reduced DUI collisions by 35% over the past year.”

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Dear Street Smart:

A couple of years ago, Rose Avenue was extended to intersect the Pacific Coast Highway on the way out of Oxnard.

They did not build a bridge over the highway like the ones at the interchanges of Channel Islands Boulevard and Pleasant Valley Road. Lanes have been provided for everything except to turn left off PCH onto Rose Avenue.

There are no directions given on how to reach Rose Avenue from PCH if one must make a left turn. Once past this intersection, a motorist must travel one mile to reach the next exit.

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I see cars as well as trucks making this turn, even though there are signs prohibiting it. What is a legal way in which to make this turn?

Marion Grieve, Oxnard

Dear Reader:

Engineers from the state Department of Transportation, which maintains that junction because it intersects a state highway, said the interchange works just fine as it is now configured.

“Due to the skewed angle of PCH and Rose Avenue, and the minimal traffic demand, no left-turn lanes from northbound or southbound PCH to Rose Avenue were installed,” said Pat Reid, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

Reid said there are two signs on either side of the PCH-Rose Avenue intersection alerting drivers to the upcoming junction. She also reminds drivers that making U-turns or left turns at that corner are against the law.

“In order to turn left to Rose Avenue from either northbound or southbound Pacific Coast Highway, motorists should turn right at the intersection and make a U-turn at the adjacent intersection, which is about one block away,” she said.

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Dear Street Smart:

I am writing to request a synchronization of the traffic lights on the Kimball Road freeway overpass in east Ventura.

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Every morning motorists encounter the following traffic stops: There is a 90-second delay when traveling west on Blackburn Road, turning onto Kimball Road.

Upon entering Kimball Road, driving southbound, they are delayed by another signal turning red on the overpass.

I am requesting that the timing for these signals be changed so that motorists who have waited 90 seconds at Blackburn and Kimball may proceed through the second overpass signal without delay.

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Michael A. Musca, Ventura

Dear Reader:

Based on your letter, Ventura traffic engineer Nazir Lalani has adjusted the timing of the signals at the Kimball Road overpass to favor those commuters like yourself who routinely had to wait.

Now, when Blackburn Road drivers reach Kimball during the peak morning commute, they no longer run into the double red lights, Lalani said. Conversely, when most drivers return home in the late afternoons, that traffic will get the longer green lights, he said.

“I’ve given preferential treatment to the Blackburn Road traffic in the mornings, between 6:45 and 8:15 a.m., because I’ve seen it back up by as many as seven or eight cars,” he said. “During the evening peak hours, the eastbound offramp traffic will get preferential treatment.”

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So far, so good, Lalani said. “I checked to see if it was working out OK, and it is,” he said. “But the rest of the day is a different matter. That will stay as it was.”

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