Will Fawnskin be more CHPr?

california highway patrol san bernardino mountains

The commotion down at Captain John’s Marina last weekend was due to a CHPr retirement party for one of our Fawnskin residents.

Margaritas were flowing heavily–so it seems entertaining that this was prior to the announcement that the California Highway Patrol will be increasing enforcement for the mountain region over the next year.

New officers are always confused when they get around these parts because everyone waves at them.

I remember telling one officer how glad I was to see him and he gave me a puzzled look and said, “Wow, that isn’t something I hear too often.”

Now, I have it from a good source that the increased enforcement has started already since one of the Fawnskin Flyer’s spies informants reports that she has seen an increase in CHP vehicles.

Locals are gonna love this–especially since drivers tend to speed through Fawnskin regularly despite the 25mph speed limit.

Remember the idiot that tried to pass on the right on the bridge last week after the other idiot came to a full stop to ask me directions?

Good thing GG was not hit–you’d be seriously lacking breaking news from these parts.

Anyway, those drivers also do stupid things like making a u-turn over a double yellow line around a corner.

My favorite story so far was finding keys in the street near Amangela’s and then ambling along further to discover a truck upside down in Grout Creek over on the Windy Point turn.

Consider that a natural speed trap–but I found it funny that they climbed out the window with the keys only to drop them on the road.

Now the increase in enforcement is possible because the California Office of Traffic Safety received a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The main focus for the CHP will be on speeders, drunken drivers and other traffic violators in the San Bernardino Mountains which allows for a couple thousand of hours for enforcement through July 31, 2011.

There will be sobriety checkpoints, monthly presentations and more.

The program even has a nifty name, “Arrive Alive on State Routes 18, 38, 138 and 330.”

Hmm, starts off rhyming…I’d do the GG change to  “Arrive Alive on State Routes 18, 38, 138 and 330…when you drive.”

But hey, that is just me I like a good beat with rhyme.

So, Fawnskin Folks have high hopes that the CHP will target those speeding motorists and those who pass and turn illegally or unsafely–and yes, catching those driving while under the influence.

I thought is was interesting that some of the grant will fund extra patrols by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for DUI prosecution and education.

The extra hours will allow deputies and officers to check on mountain bars to make sure bartenders aren’t serving alcohol to people already intoxicated, and to make sure people younger than 21 aren’t being served alcohol.

We are already short handed for enforcement of the normal laws so I’d rather see those boys doing their jobs rather than hitting the bars–so to speak.

Okay, if you are looking for some trivia–how about this?

Highway 18 is considered one of the most dangerous highways in the Inland Empire and boasts 98 traffic deaths (1999 to 2009) with more than 2,100 injury crashes overall (as reported by Caltrans).

No wonder many of us hate driving that route.

Okay, that is for now. More soon…



Thank you for reading this post. You can now Leave A Comment (0) or Leave A Trackback.

Post Info

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 and is filed under Fawnskin Folk, Mountain Lake Resort, Small Town Living.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comments Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Previous Post: »
Next Post: »

Read More

Related Reading:

Comments are closed.