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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 10.16.08 edition.
Half of traffic
fatalities involve
motorcyclists
By Beth Nottley, News
Assistant
Although the number of traffic collisions on the local mountain roads
are actually lower so far this year than they were last year, the four
recent fatalities that occurred in less than a month’s time have caused
a lot of concern among Hill residents. And, since three of those
involved motorcyclists, public perception has grown from
motorcycles being a noise nuisance to a deadly threat on the Hill.
California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer Daryl Crandall confirmed that
motorcycle riders are at high risk of being involved in a serious
motorcycle crash on the roads and highways within the local CHP
jurisdiction. He said about 42 percent of all local traffic collisions
and 50 percent of the fatal traffic collisions have involved
motorcycles this year.
However, he also reports that traffic collisions, overall, are down
this year. In the nine months from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, local CHP
investigated 129 collisions, compared to 160 collisions during the same
period in 2007. The number of fatalities though has grown — eight in
2008, seven in 2007. Motorcyclists were involved in four of each year’s
fatalities.
In every case, he said, the operators of the motorcycles were at fault
because of driving at an unsafe speed and crossing the double yellow
lines. He called this type of collision “totally avoidable.”
“The roads don’t cause crashes; the roads are well marked. All they
[drivers] have to do is take heed to the advisory signs,” Crandall said.
Brian Hand, who was injured in two-car collision in Idyllwild on Sept.
19, agrees with Crandall. “It’s stupid not to follow the advisory
signs,” he said in a telephone interview last Saturday. “I’ve been
coming up the Hill for years, both in the car and on my Harley, and I
always drive with care,” he said.
Hand is grateful he was driving his SUV and not his motorcycle the day
he and his partner, Joan Griswold, were struck head-on at Saunders
Meadow Road on Highway 243 by a car that crossed the double yellow
lines coming from the opposite direction.
Although Hand escaped with only moderate injuries, Griswold has a long,
painful recovery ahead. She suffered severe trauma to her neck and back
and is now wearing a back brace and a “halo” to immobilize her head
while her neck heals. Hand says that the doctors expect she’ll be
wearing the heavy, uncomfortable device for several months and it is
possible that she will need spinal surgery.
Hand said he and Griswold, Rancho Mirage residents, have been visitors
to the Hill for years. “We enjoy the ride and the quiet of the town,”
he said. “And she loved to shop up there,” he said with a chuckle. But
then his voice instantly sobered. “I don’t know if she’ll ever want to
come to Idyllwild again. We were almost there; we just didn’t make it.”
When asked if he thought motorcyclists were more dangerous than drivers
of cars and trucks, Hand said, “Not Harley riders, but I do think the
ones on mountain bikes usually go too fast and take too many chances.
We [motorcyclists] are at greater risk from all bad drivers though. If
I’d been on my motorcycle, I’d be dead,” he said.
Joe Sample, a Harley rider who frequently travels with his wife, Lisa,
between San Diego and Idyllwild, was visiting again this past weekend.
He agrees with Hand. “Us Harley riders, we respect the road and we
watch out for people. We set the pace of being easy and laid back,” he
said. “Those other guys on the sports bikes are always taking crazy
chances. They wreck it for everyone else on the road.”
Crandall, who lives in Pine Cove and has driven the mountain roads and
highways as a CHP officer for nearly a decade, said he shares the
community’s concerns about unsafe drivers. He said the local CHP has
staffing of just one officer per shift to cover the 252-square-miles
that encompass the Idyllwild Resident Post’s territory. This area
includes Highway 371 from Highway 74 to Cary Road in Anza, Highway 74
between Strawberry Creek and Big Horn Drive in Pinyon, and Highway 243
from Mountain Center to Twin Pines Road in Twin Pines.
Crandall’s statistics do not cover the stretch of Highway 243 between
Strawberry Creek and Hemet that San Gorgonio Post CHP officers patrol.
He did say there have been three fatalities on that stretch so far this
year, compared to just one last year.
He said it is impossible for CHP to monitor the traffic at every curve
in the road and asks the public’s help in catching drivers who speed
and pass on the double yellow lines. “Get their plates and call the
CHP. We’ll try to get an officer in position to get them,” he said. CHP
may be reached at (951) 769-2000.
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