Unsafe-Driving Crackdown Called Success

A two-day crackdown on bad drivers in Compton resulted in 600 citations and the impoundment of 90 vehicles, authorities said Thursday.

“We had to do it,” said Sgt. Mark Saldecke of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which absorbed the Compton Police Department about six months ago. “The traffic violation problem in Compton is unbelievable, running rampant; there have been 12 fatal accidents since September.”

The crackdown, which ended Thursday, was led by a task force of sheriff’s deputies, California Highway Patrol officers and 37 police officers on motorcycles recruited from several neighboring cities who fanned out in search of moving violations.

“They found them, lots of them,” he said.

Hundreds of drivers were cited for rolling stops, speeding, driving without a valid license, making unsafe turns and lane changes, following too closely, even driving at night without headlights on.

Then there is the problem of motorists who try to drive around the city’s many railroad crossing guard mechanisms.

“That’s a big problem in Compton,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Tony Argott. “There’s an inordinate number of trains coming through town. People get impatient and make bad judgments. We’re trying to get them to wait.”

On Wednesday night, Saldecke said, “a guy was getting onto the 91 Freeway, then changed his mind and wound up swerving across a traffic lane and crashing into a truck.”

“A half-hour earlier and a few blocks away, a guy blew a red light--surprise--and then collided with another car.”

Compton Mayor Omar Bradley described the crackdown as “an extreme success. People are certainly obeying traffic laws and being more conscientious about their driving now.”

Compton residents, Bradley said, “pay astronomically high insurance costs because of the very problems the task force attacked.”

The task force was organized as part of an ongoing Sheriff’s Department effort to make good on its promise to help revive the city and aid anti-crime campaigns in neighboring communities.