Transit Panel Hears Officials’ Plans to Make Highway Safer

Hoping to slow the toll of deadly crashes on California 126, a slew of state, county and local officials peppered the Ventura County Transportation Commission on Friday with plans to make the narrow road safer.

Legislators pledged support in Sacramento. Highway patrolmen promised stricter speed enforcement. And local officials threw out shopping lists of laws, equipment and public-awareness plans that they maintain can cut down on accidents along the road that has claimed nine lives in the past four weeks.

California Highway Patrol Capt. Michael Porrazzo said the CHP can crack down on speeders with aerial spotters and more patrol cruisers, but deadly accidents along the narrow, heavily traveled corridor are almost inevitable.

“I really don’t want to see that,” he said. “Unfortunately, with the traffic we have on Highway 126, it’s going to happen again. It’s essentially the same picture you’ve always seen on 126.”

The danger is compounded by road-widening work between Fillmore and the Ventura County line, scheduled to continue until December 1998. The stretch between there and the Golden State Freeway will take an additional two years, said Ginger Gherardi, the commission’s executive director.

“This is a real problem, but once we get through it, it’ll be a much-improved facility,” she said. Until then, she added, “It’s important that we have in place as much safety precautions and awareness of what’s going on for the public as possible.”

Spurred by the recent rash of deaths--most recently an 81-year-old Pasadena man who drifted off the shoulder and slammed into a steamroller on Monday--the commission functioned Friday as a sounding board for numerous ideas and promises of help.

Both state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) and a spokesman for state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) expressed deep concern over the danger on California 126. O’Connell and Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) have already written to Caltrans pressing the agency to make the highway safer.