ShareThisBy ELY PORTILLO
Fresno Bee
In a bid to reduce the number of people killed in collisions between cars and large trucks, the California Highway Patrol is sending out more officers this summer to ticket unsafe drivers.
The agency will use an $89,500 federal grant to pay overtime for about three dozen officers to beef up patrols on the freeways around Fresno, Modesto and Bakersfield.
Throughout that area, officers said, 66 people were killed last year in collisions between large commercial trucks and smaller "passenger vehicles," such as cars or SUVs.
So far this year, there have been 13 fatal car-truck collisions in the area, officials said.
When a big truck and a car crash, "the smaller vehicle ends up losing," CHP spokesman Scott MacGregor said.
CHP launched its crackdown Tuesday. Officers will keep an eye out for drivers doing unsafe things such as driving too close to trucks or driving in trucks' blind spots.
Car drivers are responsible for accidents more often than they might think, the CHP said.
"Most attribute these crashes to 'Well, it has to be the truck driver,' " MacGregor said at a news conference in the CHP Central Division office in Fresno. "More than half of those collisions are caused by the passenger vehicle, however."
The agency found that car drivers were at fault in 48 of the 66 fatalities last year.
Along with enforcement on the freeways, the CHP will try to educate the public about how to share the road safely with trucks. Officers will hold informational sessions and events around Fresno, using a big-rig-driving simulator to give members of the public a taste of driving a tractor-trailer.
The crackdown and educational efforts will continue into September.
(The reporter can be reached at eportillo@fresnobee.com.)
