Q: Why do fatal car accidents require complete freeway shutdowns for investigations? The delays can be hours affecting thousands of motorists. Couldn’t there be a requirement that drivers sign a waiver that forfeits the requirement for a complicated, hours-long investigation? Aren’t speed, reckless and distracted driving the usual causes?
– Kenneth Rosen, Tarzana
A: No matter how good the ball game is on the radio, or the music coming out of the speakers — Honk is one frustrated dude when sitting in clogged traffic.
Cody Sturges, a California Highway Patrol officer and spokesman out of the Woodland Hills station that patrols the 101 Freeway that cuts through your community, Kenneth, said that the agency tries to reopen lanes as quickly as is practical. One of the agency’s top missions is to keep traffic moving.
But when there is a complex investigation — think a deadly crash or a freeway shooting — the probe takes precedence over traffic backing up.
“We’re trying to (help) determine if charges should be filed,” Sturges said. “We’re trying to recreate the scene to determine who was at fault. The burden of proof is on the prosecutor.”
Officers search the area for any evidence, such as looking for bullet casings that might have been kicked around by traffic before it was halted. They measure skid marks, to determine speed, and pinpoint where evidence is found on the highway — in the old days, tape measures were unspooled but now quicker lasers are deployed.
Officer Sturges has been out on a lot of these calls. Perhaps the longest closure he has worked was a couple of years ago on the 101, a partial closure that took five hours until the last lane was reopened: “We don’t do full closures … if there’s not evidence across all of the lanes. …
“We do it as fast as we can. It does take time. … Every little bit of evidence matters. People have to think, ‘What if it was my kid or my spouse (who was a victim)?’ “
Q: Sometimes you see signs on the freeway that say something to the effect of “Accident Ahead” — which seems odd. I would say they are made out of wood and metal, so kind of temporary ones that are relatively easy to move and install. Are you able to ask Caltrans how that works?
– Bryant Brislin, Irvine
A: Is Honk a roads scholar? Does he have more sources than Woodward and Bernstein? Does he dream about highway trivia?
You get the idea — yes, he can.
Caltrans spokesman Nathan Abler said that in Orange County, anyway, such signs are not deployed by the state agency.
The OC division depends on the permanent, overhead electronic signs to flash traffic updates about a collision or other incident hurting traffic flow, such as a semitruck’s load of eggs spilling across lanes.
If more notice is needed, or if the incident is not near an overhead sign, Caltrans will dispatch trucks with mounted electronic-message signs to park on, say, a freeway shoulder.
Contractors hired by Caltrans to build improvements also deploy electronic message signs; they are on trailers that are left on a side of the roadway.
Other Caltrans divisions, or road crews elsewhere, might deploy the signs you mentioned.
HONKIN’ FACT: From Jan. 1, 2020, through 2024, California had more than 60,000 crashes at least partially blamed by officers on distracted driving, leaving 43,000 people injured and 350 dead, according to California Highway Patrol’s preliminary data. Those distractions could have been texting, using a cellphone, eating, or adjusting the vehicle’s controls.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. To see his columns on X: @OCRegisterHonk