Truck Fatality Spurs Nine-Step City Plan to Increase Safety

Anaheim officials announced Tuesday that they plan numerous roadway changes in Anaheim Hills to discourage truck traffic on Imperial Highway, including reducing the speed limit and adding freeway signs telling truckers to avoid the route.

The city’s nine-step plan comes just two weeks after 53-year-old optometrist Kenneth Michael Larkin was killed on Imperial, at the Nohl Ranch Road intersection, by a runaway big rig on the steep downhill grade that slammed into six vehicles. It was the third serious truck incident at that intersection in the past year, and area residents had been complaining since August that changes needed to be made.

The plan was disclosed during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, where Larkin’s stepdaughter, Tamara Adams, appealed on behalf of her family that something be done.

“We urge the city to consider all possible solutions, so this doesn’t happen to any other family,” she said.

Adams told the council that it was “very hard to stand here this evening,” and afterward tearfully hugged Larkin’s widow, Anne, and other family members.

While the council still must vote on some parts of the plan, city traffic engineer John Lower said some changes can be made immediately.

The police and city staff are recommending that truck speed on Imperial Highway, south of the Riverside Freeway, be reduced to 25 mph (from 40 mph) and that signs be posted ordering trucks to drive in a lower gear. Signs will also be posted on the southbound exit from the freeway, warning truckers that the Imperial exit is not part of the city’s designated truck route.

Some speakers asked the council to ban trucks using Imperial. But Lower said the city cannot legally stop truck traffic because delivery service is needed there. If a resident is putting in a new driveway, for example, a gravel truck, similar to the one that killed Larkin, would be needed for the job.

“But what we can do is reduce their speed, and if we do that, we’ll reduce accidents,” Lower said.

Other steps in the city plan:

* Combine radar trailers (where motorists can see for themselves how fast they’re going) with officers ready to issue citations.

* Coordinate with Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, neighboring Brea and Orange, and the trucking industry to reduce truck use in Anaheim Hills.

* Increase commercial vehicle safety inspections and enforcement within the Anaheim Hills area.

The city also plans to conduct speed zone surveys for trucks and to install a yellow flashing light near the “hill” symbol for northbound traffic on Imperial. Similar measures may be taken in other parts of Anaheim Hills.

Resident Melissa Smith, who organized a community rally four days after the March 8 accident, said at the council meeting that residents won’t be happy until there’s a truck ban. But short of that, she said, “I think the city is on the same wavelength as we are.”

Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly told residents that the city “is going to take very seriously the implications of this tragedy.”

In other action, the council voted unanimously to repeal a controversial ordinance requiring certain workers to hold police-issued identification cards.

The ordinance has been on the books for more than 35 years but had recently come under fire by union officials, immigration activists and many Anaheim employees as a violation of privacy rights.

Bartenders, waiters and waitresses, janitors and other employees who serve alcohol were required to fill out a one-page application. Employees were also photographed, fingerprinted and asked to provide details about their immigration status and arrest history.

City officials agreed that many sections of the ordinance were problematic. Councilman Tom Tait has said that he believes the identification cards are unconstitutional and serve no legitimate purpose.

*

Times staff writer Kimi Yoshino contributed to this report.