Aug 31, 2007

Police step up efforts for holiday weekend

Bay Bridge closure expected to increase county highway traffic

By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

Local law enforcement agencies are boosting the number of on-duty officers patrolling the roads this holiday weekend, especially with the scheduled closure of the Bay Bridge.

California Highway Patrol officials are calling the weekend a "maximum enforcement period" in which an increase in auto accidents and DUIs is expected. The enforcement period will begin around the time of the Friday afternoon commute and will end at midnight Monday.

"We have augmented our forces somewhat due to the Bay Bridge closure," CHP Sgt. Matt Otterby said.

Otterby would not say exactly how many extra officers the CHP will have on San Mateo County highways, but said the highway patrol typically doubles its numbers of on-duty officers during holidays.

And with more traffic expected because of the bridge closure, that number will be even higher this weekend, he said.

Additional efforts to crack down on drunk drivers include the Avoid the 23 campaign in San Mateo County. The Avoid campaign is a joint effort of all of the county's law enforcement agencies, including the CHP.

According to information on the Avoid Web site, the stepped-up efforts will include checkpoints in Millbrae and San Bruno. There will also be DUI strike teams in Redwood City and Daly City.

"We just want drivers who are on the road to know there are consequences when they drink and drive," said Tim Birch, the program coordinator.

Last year, 58 DUI arrests were made in San Mateo County during the Labor Day weekend, up slightly from the 50 arrests in 2005. No fatal DUI-related accidents occurred during the holiday weekend in 2005 or 2006.

Heavier-than-normal traffic is expected on roadways throughout the state this weekend. The American Automobile Association of Northern California estimates that nearly 5 million Californians will travel 50 miles or farther from their homes, and about 3.9 million of those people will travel by automobile.

Although more people will be using the San Mateo Bridge and other spans to get across the Bay, it is unclear how big of an impact the Bay Bridge closure will have on San Mateo County, Caltrans spokeswoman Margena Wade said.

"We don't have a crystal ball. We don't know how many people are going to be in their cars, but we are encouraging people to take public transportation," she said.

About 280,000 vehicles a day cross the Bay Bridge, and usually that number is lower during Labor Day weekend, she said.

It was because of the lighter traffic that Caltrans chose this weekend for the closure to make headway on replacing a section of the bridge. It will be the first time the bridge has been closed in both directions since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Every toll booth on other Bay Area bridges will be staffed in order to handle the expected increase in traffic, Wade said. But nonetheless, wait times to cross could be longer, she said.

Caltrans has been getting the word out through fliers, electronic signs on the freeways and by distributing information about the closure around the state.

Public transit agencies that cross the Bay are doing their part by extending service hours.

BART will run trains all night long while the bridge is closed. But hourly service after midnight will only be to 14 stations, and the San Francisco International Airport station will be the only one of those stations on the Peninsula to have that service.

For more information about the Bay Bridge closure, go to www.baybridgeinfo.org.


E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.