'03 PROVING LETHAL FOR MOTORISTS SLOW DOWN, PAY ATTENTION, CHP ADVISES.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - This year has started out deadly on Antelope Valley roads.

In 2003's first seven weeks, 15 people died on highways and rural roads, compared with six in the same period last year. An additional five people were killed during those weeks this year on city streets in Lancaster and Palmdale.

``It's not shaping up to be a good year for us,'' said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Robert Hulbert. ``We need to reduce the number of people dying out here. People have to pay attention.''

The crashes are not in any particular area or due to any single cause, officials say.

Fatal car crashes have occurred from arrow-straight Avenue B on the valley floor, near the Kern County line, to curvy Angeles Forest Highway.

Authorities have blamed everything from speeding to running stop signs to making unsafe turns.

Several crashes were on two-lane rural roads, where motorists travel at freeway speeds and fail to see stops signs at intersections or veer off the road or into oncoming traffic. Two were on notorious Highway 138. Two were were rear-end crashes on the Antelope Valley Freeway.

Because of the varying causes and locations, officials say they are at a loss on how to combat the increase.

``I'm sure, in years past, there have been targeted patrols, but this year they have just been spread out all over,'' said CHP officer Rusty Moore. ``We are asking that people pay attention at all times. Don't get distracted. Slow down and wear your seat belt.''

Since Jan. 1, 16 crashes have killed 20 people throughout the valley. The deadliest occurred last week when a Palmdale mother's truck veered off Highway 138 into the California Aqueduct, killing her and her three children. A 10-year-old cousin remains unconscious on life support. The woman had been driving for only a few months and didn't have a license, officers said.

In 2002, CHP officials reported five fatal crashes with six dead on highways and rural roads by the end of February, while this year there have been 12 crashes with 15 dead. For the entire year of 2002, there were 34 fatal crashes with 38 deaths in the CHP's local patrol zone inside Los Angeles County. That number did not include area crashes outside the county, as when five people were killed in a head-on crash Jan. 20 on Highway 395 north of Boron or a Las Vegas man was killed Jan. 29 west of Mojave.

Also this year, a woman and her son on Sierra Highway at Palmdale, and there were three deaths in three of the crashes in Lancaster.

A 25-year-old woman was killed on Presidents Day weekend when, officials said, the car in which she was riding ran a stop sign at a rural intersection and was hit broadside by another car.

``You have to pay really close attention when you're driving out in the county areas,'' Hulbert said. ``It's really easy to miss some of those intersections. You don't know you're there until you're on them. If there's a single message we can send to people it's to slow down, pay attention and live.''