Truckers Get New Scrutiny by Police

Jesse Cruz, a trucker headed north on the Antelope Valley Freeway through Santa Clarita, regarded the right shoulder with dread.

There was a CHP officer waving him into the truck inspection station--which is often closed--north of the Via Princessa exit.

At 7 a.m., Cruz become the first casualty of the day in a CHP campaign, backed by the Federal Highway Administration, to prevent deaths in truck accidents by cracking down on unsafe, tired or unlicensed drivers and hazardous rigs.

Cruz was ticketed for a cracked windshield, which alone would keep him from returning to the freeway.

But he also had an everyday Class C license, not the Class B commercial driver’s license required. Cruz’s employers had to send another driver to get him and their truck.

He was nabbed by the Top 10 program, supported by federal grants to the 10 states with the most fatal accidents involving commercial vehicles.

California, which leads the pack, got $100,000. That pays for a stepped-up program that targets drivers as well as the mechanical problems emphasized previously.

Fatal traffic collisions in California have been steadily decreasing, from 4,920 in 1987 to 3,252 in 1997, even as the number of vehicles has increased from 20.6 million to 21.7 million.

But trucks have not been following the trend. In 1993, there were 369 fatal truck-involved traffic accidents.

That number went up to 376 in 1994 and up again to 386 in 1995. Then the numbers dropped to 373 in 1996 and 364 in 1997, according to CHP statistics.

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Last week, Orange County was the setting for a pair of freeway accidents involving trucks. An Irvine woman was killed and more than 15 others were injured in the crashes, which happened on the Santa Ana Freeway and on the Artesia Freeway.

In both cases, the truck drivers could not stop their rigs in time to avoid hitting cars stuck in the traffic jams near Anaheim. No one has been charged.

Sgt. John Williams, commercial enforcement supervisor for the CHP in Los Angeles County, said the leading causes of truck-related crashes in that county are speed, tailgating and unsafe lane changes.

“Truckers from out of state enter the L.A. metropolitan area, they’re unfamiliar with the L.A. road system, they’re driving unsafely for the conditions, and they crash,” Williams said.

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But according to CHP statistics, the truckers themselves are to blame less often than auto drivers they encounter. In 1997, out of the 364 fatal collisions involving trucks statewide, only 114 were determined to be the fault of the truck driver.

“A lot of crashes are caused not by the truck but [automobile] drivers not leaving enough space in front of them or cutting [truck] drivers off,” said CHP spokesman Steve Kohler. “Trucks cannot maneuver or stop as quickly as passenger cars can.”

Part of the federal Top 10 grant funds the state’s No Zone program, a series of public safety announcements aimed at educating motorists to avoid truckers’ blind spots, said Mickael Gouweloos, state program specialist for the commercial vehicle unit of the Federal Highway Administration.

“The bottom line is, it really doesn’t matter who is at fault, because trucks are much bigger and heavier than cars,” he said. “The driver of the car--not the driver of the truck--is killed in fatal collisions four out of five times.”

From May to July, Newhall CHP officials used the federal funding to cover overtime pay needed to put three to five officers per shift on truck enforcement, compared with just one previously, said Officer Doug Sweeney.

With the beefed-up enforcement, officers handed out 442 citations to commercial drivers.

In Newhall, that crackdown followed a rash of truck-related collisions, Sweeney said. From January to July 1997, Newhall officers recorded 330 truck-related accidents, 257 of which occurred on a five-mile downhill grade through Castaic.

That zone, which is posted at 40 mph for truckers, is known for big-rig speeders, Sweeney said.

In the same months this year, there have been only 70 truck accidents on that five-mile stretch.

“When we’re out there in view, it’s a big deterrent,” Sweeney said.

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And when the commercial enforcement officers aren’t waiting behind the bend for their next big rig to come barreling through, they are parked at the truck inspection stations, looking to remove unsafe trucks and drivers from the road.

CHP officials say mechanical malfunctions are becoming rarer in truck-related crashes, but they vow to keep up the roadside inspections, saying they are looking not only for faulty brakes and worn tires but also for drivers in need of rest.

“We can look up and visually make eye contact with every individual who comes through here,” said Officer Steve Howe as he worked a truck inspection post on the Antelope Valley Freeway recently.

“You can pretty much tell by making eye contact what physical condition the individual is in.”

Fatigue is indeed the No. 1 reason for accidents caused by trucks, said Barry Broad, a Teamsters union lobbyist in Sacramento.

Truckers sometimes carry two log books, he said, one with factual accounts of where they’ve stopped, how many hours they’ve driven and how many they’ve slept, and another--showing much more sleep--for police inspectors.

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Union truckers have no problem with the CHP enforcing the law, Broad said, adding that more effort should be made cracking down on fatigued truckers who falsify log books.

The Teamsters have traditionally supported such crackdowns, which combat the economic advantage nonunion drivers get by not following the rest requirements in union contracts.

Trucks are safer than they were just 10 years ago, Howe said, but inspectors still put many out of service until a mechanic can fix a problem.

The truckers have mixed reactions.

“You’re happy because you know you won’t hurt anybody, but sometimes they get ticky-tacky,” said Lee James, 26, of Victorville, whose tractor-trailer was pulled over on the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway for having faulty brakes.

“But it’s their job, it’s for safety,” he said. “You don’t want to kill somebody.”

John Moss, 38, of Reseda was ordered off the road because he was driving with a suspended license.

“Normally this [station] is closed,” Moss said. “My license just got suspended, and I was taking a chance that this was closed.”

“I’ve never seen a truck stop pull over so many trucks,” he said with a sigh.