Officials Fail to Find Pattern in Accidents

Dear Traffic Talk:

I work in a medical office building in Northridge that sits on the southeast corner of Etiwanda Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard.

Over the past year and a half we have seen approximately one accident per week at this intersection.

The majority of them involved cars traveling west on Roscoe that turned south onto Etiwanda and were broadsided by cars traveling east on Roscoe.

Around sunset, cars traveling in the right lane on eastbound Roscoe cannot see the signal during part of the drive between Reseda and Etiwanda.

There is considerable traffic, especially emergency vehicles because of the proximity to Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

A recent accident injured a woman, her newborn and another child. A doctor in our building was also badly injured last year.

We are afraid that the next accident may be fatal.

Nancy Theroux

Tarzana

Dear Nancy:

Engineers from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation performed a field check at the intersection and reviewed the accident records, according to authorities.

Unfortunately, a particular type of accident did not stand out enough to indicate a trend for which a specific solution can be implemented, said Brian Gallagher, a spokesman for the agency’s traffic lights division.

These are the observations the department made:

The trees on the south side of Roscoe Boulevard were blocking some of the signals for eastbound traffic.

A tree-trimming request was made to the proper city department, Gallagher said.

He said the signals are functioning properly, with good visibility of oncoming traffic for turning motorists.

His agency did an accident check for the intersection and determined there have been numerous accidents there, Gallagher said.

But because the accidents are all different, it is not clear at this time what exactly the department should be aiming to correct, Gallagher said.

Dear Traffic Talk:

The California Highway Patrol says that drivers in the carpool lanes must obey the same speed law as the drivers in regular traffic, then immediately contradicts itself with:

Generally, they must travel at the natural flow of traffic for that lane or risk being cited.

I believe that the California Highway Patrol should stick to the speed laws in carpool or regular lanes.

Larry Espiritu

Santa Clarita

Dear Larry:

The bottom line is that anyone going faster than the speed limit can get a citation, according to Officer Ed Sandoval, a spokesman for the CHP.

About the only time that officers will not interrupt a flow of traffic in which motorists are going over the speed limit is when making a stop at a particular point is unsafe, he said.

CHP officers use the concept of “the normal flow of traffic” when traffic, road or weather conditions don’t justify motorists driving as fast as the speed limit, according to authorities.

For example, a person driving 55 mph in areas where that is the posted speed limit, and weaving in and out of traffic, can be cited if it is rush hour and an officer determines that the rest of traffic is moving safely at 40 mph.

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