Death Leads to Council Airing of Road Safety

Along with many concerned residents, the family of an Anaheim Hills optometrist killed in a recent big-rig crash plans to ask the Anaheim City Council tonight to improve a dangerous stretch of Imperial Highway.

The intersection at Nohl Ranch Road has been the site of at least three serious accidents involving semis that failed to stop.

In the most recent accident on March 8, a runaway big rig driven by an unlicensed trucker barreled through the intersection, setting off a 12-car collision that killed optometrist Kenneth Michael Larkin, 53.

Resident Lissa Smith said that ideally, she’d like to see commercial traffic banned from Imperial Highway. “[The city] has been very forthcoming and very cooperative,” she said.

Anaheim city spokesman Bret Colson said staff already have started working on the issue, but declined to specify what measures are most viable until the study is complete.

Among the options are reducing the speed limit, barring access to trucks and increasing already heavy enforcement by police.

Anaheim police investigators, meanwhile, are continuing a probe into the fatal crash and called in help from the California Highway Patrol’s Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team to inspect the truck, piece by piece, and to help recreate the accident.

So far, no charges have been filed against the driver, Anthony Robert Saiz, 47, of Lakewood. Saiz, who has a history of traffic citations, was driving on an expired license and apparently lacked the city permit that allowed him access on the steep stretch of Imperial Highway.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, hundreds of people are expected to support the opposition of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional to Anaheim’s policy of having police cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, including allowing INS agents to be stationed at the city jail. The group plans to formally petition the City Council to revoke the policy.

The council is expected to repeal another ordinance Tuesday night that has come under fire from union officials, immigration activists and many Anaheim employees.

That ordinance--passed more than 35 years ago--requires waiters and waitresses, bartenders, janitors and other employees to carry a city-issued ID card. Union officials have argued the cards violate employees’ privacy rights.