CHP Launches Campaign to Curb Accidents on 710

The California Highway Patrol has launched an effort to make the Long Beach Freeway safer by adding more patrols and implementing an education campaign to crack down on reckless truck drivers.

One of the region’s major freight corridors--leading to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles--the roadway has been plagued by truck accidents.

Last month, a big rig punched through the freeway’s weak center divider and plowed into oncoming traffic, killing one and injuring nine others.

The Highway Patrol will use two federal grants to pay for the program to curb the high number of accidents on the freeway, said CHP Capt. Calvin Aubrey.

“We are trying to take a proactive approach, rather than just being reactive,” he said.

The grants, which total more than $300,000, will be used for enhanced patrol of the 24-mile roadway.

Currently, seven CHP units patrol the Long Beach Freeway daily. With the additional funding, four to five more units will be added, Aubrey said.

Last year, CHP officers issued 3,062 citations to truck drivers on the freeway.

The primary causes of truck-involved collisions are unsafe lane changes, speeding, passing violations, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and following too closely, officials said.

In 2001, there were 616 truck-involved collisions on the freeway, a number that CHP officials hope to reduce.

Part of the grant also will be spent on a driver awareness campaign, which will include two billboards, one on each side of the freeway, that will depict a truck and a car harmoniously sharing the roadway.

“We don’t want truck [drivers] to feel that we’re out to get them,” Aubrey said, noting that car drivers also cause many accidents. “This is not a case of CHP against truckers.”

“If a car quickly changes lanes in front of a truck, trucks can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, and they can’t stop as quickly as a car can,” Aubrey said.

However, the larger part of the education campaign is aimed specifically at truck drivers. CHP commercial vehicle specialists will go to truck companies and make safety presentations for drivers.

The state Department of Transportation last year also began a $400-million overhaul of the 46-year-old freeway, replacing deteriorating pavement.

Big rigs carrying cargo from the two ports account for more than 13% of the total traffic on the freeway. The original design assumed that only 5% of the traffic would be trucks.

“Fixing the 710 had to be a partnership,” said Sharon Weissman, district director for Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach). “With Caltrans doing the repaving project, education and enforcement were the other two keys.”