How the Border Patrol Picks and Chooses at the Checkpoint
Dear Street Smart:
I pass the San Clemente border checkpoint approximately five times per week. I am always waved through, most times without hesitation and sometimes without even a glance. I do not look Hispanic, and in fact am not. I am always alone and pass through usually at night and sometimes early in the morning.
Last night, the border control officer looked at my vehicle as I was passing, and I stopped and asked what he was looking at. His reply was that he was looking to see how the car rode.
Question: Why am I not stopped and searched for hidden illegals or drugs or whatever? What does the riding of my automobile have to do with who gets stopped? It appears to me that I could be sneaking anything or anybody past the checkpoint without any trouble.
Paul A. Sax
Mission Viejo
The reason you’re not stopped is probably because you don’t look suspicious, according to Roy Villareal, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego. This could be because you are a regular who comes through the checkpoint at about the same time every day and is recognized by the guards. Or, he said, because you are not displaying the behaviors the border patrol looks for.
“If someone is driving through with a load of narcotics or illegals, he will usually be nervous,” Villareal said. “There are predictable things that we look for.”
Such as a white-knuckled gripping of the steering wheel. Or a visible increase in uneasiness as the officer approaches.
“At that point,” Villareal said, “the officer more than likely will choose to stop the person just to build on the nervousness. The first thing that comes out of the officer’s mouth is ‘good morning,’ or ‘good afternoon,’ and, at that instant, the subject’s level of nervousness escalates from zero to 100. You can see the arteries in their neck pulsing, or they will start sweating even in the dead of winter. Sometimes you say good morning, and they can’t even answer you.”
The result is predictable--the officer searches the car.
The scrutinizing of your car’s “ride,” Villareal said, was to spot irregularities caused by the excessive weight of its cargo or modifications in the car’s design aimed at hiding that cargo. “If the front end is high and the back end is hunkered down to two inches off the ground,” he said, “that’s a telltale sign.”
Dear Street Smart:
I drive a 1989 Ford Bronco. I purchased this truck new, and, since the day I first filled it up with gas, have been doing the math and logging the fuel mileage. When the powers that be decided that it would be a good idea to oxygenate the gasoline, I experienced a 15% drop in gas mileage. I understand that this is the norm rather than the exception.
Now, I am no rocket scientist, but if the EPA did this to help clean the air, I would think that the reduced fuel mileage would counteract any slight improvement in air quality since more fuel is being burned (in my case, 15% more).
Unless the air quality is improved through the use of this oxygenated fuel by more than 15%, I would call the experiment a dismal failure and discontinue the program. I’m sure the oil companies would like to see it continue due to the fact that we are burning more fuel; after all, they did raise the price of gas to counteract the increased cost of producing the oxygenated fuel.
My question is, is this gas really working or are we just getting the shaft in the guise of a better environment one more time?
Bob Dallape
Laguna Niguel
Government officials and industry experts Street Smart interviewed believe that your dramatic drop in gas mileage is an aberration.
Before mandating cleaner-burning oxygenated fuel in 1996, the California Air Resources Board tested a range of vehicles under a variety of driving conditions. Their findings, according to spokesman Richard Varenchik: a consistent 1% to 3% decrease in mileage when using oxygenated fuels.
Varenchik also said that engines powered by oxygenated fuels average about 15% fewer smog-forming emissions than those running on conventional gas.
He suggests that the mileage decrease you are experiencing could be caused by a number of other factors including weather, passenger load, traffic congestion or car maintenance.
Dear Street Smart:
Would the cost of “Do Not Back Up Severe Tire Damage” spikes on the freeway offramps be a worthwhile investment in light of the recent wrong-way driver tragedies?
Ben Klick
Villa Park
Caltrans has considered just such an option and rejected it. The reason: No one has invented spikes that immediately stop the car.
“Say you drive over it, but you still can maneuver the car,” spokesman Jim Drago said. “So now we’ve got a disabled vehicle out in the traffic lane, which is an impediment in itself. Across the country, the accepted position is that this doesn’t solve the problem.”
Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County Edition, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail him at David.Haldane@latimes.com Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.
