CALIFORNIA'S ROUGH ROADS; TRUCKERS RATE DRIVERS, FREEWAYS AS AMONG WORST.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

California has tied with Georgia for the nation's worst drivers and is home to the third worst roads, particularly the 5 and 10 freeways, according to a nationwide survey of long-haul truckers released Monday.

The 5 and 10 freeways were labeled ``unspeakably bad'' by the survey in the November issue of Overdrive magazine, ranking only behind interstate stretches in Arkansas and Louisiana as the worst patches of asphalt in the nation.

Just ask a few truckers at the Castaic rest stop.

``I-10 in L.A., it's bad. It's really bad,'' said trucker Paul Hauk of Pixley, Calif., resting after dropping off a load of hay at Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood. ``They've got construction all the time - it never gets done, it's always a hassle, and it causes a lot of accidents.''

The 10th annual survey polled 1,115 truckers who either subscribe to the magazine or visited its World Wide Web site, overdriveonline.com.

``Truck drivers are the over-the-road experts, averaging 100,000 miles a year,'' said Overdrive managing editor Allison Hatfield. ``Who better to tell you what condition our country's roads are in?''

For the first nine years of the survey, truckers said Pennsylvania had the worst roads in the nation. But this year Arkansas claimed the dubious honor.

Hatfield said both states are major junctions for east-west truck traffic, yet neither has had much money available in the past decade for highway maintenance.

``The highways were not constructed to withstand such a heavy amount of truck traffic,'' Hatfield said.

The truckers rated the worst stretches of road in the country based on the condition of the pavement, number of rest stops, congestion and other factors. They said Interstate 40 and I-30 in Arkansas are the worst, followed by I-10 in Louisiana, and then I-5 and I-10 in California.

``We're doing a lot of rehab right now on both of those,'' repaving rough patches of road, said Caltrans spokesman Gene Berthelsen. ``Also, in L.A. County those are both very congested highways. You've got a lot of folks on those.''

Timing is everything when it comes to moving freight through Los Angeles, according to truckers.

``Traffic is horrible,'' said Lonny Cummings, 59, who dropped off a load of luggage containers at Los Angeles International Airport and was on his way home to the Sacramento area Monday. ``You've got to be careful what time you go in and out of there or you'll be stuck.''

And the amount of traffic is worsened by the poor quality of the drivers, the survey said.

Under the category ``Teach those four-wheelers to drive'' - using trucker slang for car drivers - Overdrive magazine lists California and Georgia as tied for having the worst drivers in the country, followed by New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland and a tie between Florida and Texas.

Two months ago, trucker Jeff Surrena of Lone Oak, Ark., hit a woman in a Nissan Maxima who swerved in front of him after entering the freeway near Banning.

No one was hurt in the crash, he said, but ``that's just some of the stuff you put up with.''

``You can't avoid the traffic all the time. Usually I try to get into L.A. about 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning,'' said Surrena, 42. ``But sometimes you gotta get in there and play with it. It's there and there's nothing you can do about it.''

Surrena and his fiancee and co-driver, Virginia Taylor, 44, were headed to Salinas to pick up a load of lettuce for Orlando, Fla. But she wasn't relishing traveling on Arkansas roads to get there, she said.

``They go bump-bump-bump,'' she said, moving her hand three feet up and down to simulate the ruts.

The findings in Overdrive's survey are borne out in two studies in the past year by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a Washington-based nonprofit transportation study group.

Its ``Potholes and Politics'' report showed that 78 percent of roads in Southern California are in poor condition, compared to the national average of 57 percent. It also said drivers in California spend more to repair their cars due to road damage than those anywhere else but Detroit.

And a March study of aggressive driving showed that greater Los Angeles ranked 15th in the nation in deaths related to aggressive driving, according to project spokeswoman Gloria Ohland.

``The empirical evidence shows what the truckers say is true,'' Ohland said. ``Aggressive driving is definitely a problem we need to address, and clearly Caltrans needs to implement a fix-it-first policy, fixing the roads we have before we build any new ones.''

Worst drivers:

1. (tie) California, Georgia

2. New Jersey

3. Illinois

4. Maryland

5. (tie) Texas, Florida

Worst stretches of road:

1. (tie) I-40 and I-30 in Arkansas

2. I-10 in Louisiana

3. (tie) I-5 and I-10 in California

4. (tie) I-80 and I-78 in Pennsylvania

5. I-94 in Illinois

Worst roads, overall:

1. Arkansas

2. Louisiana

3. (tie) Illinois, Pennsylvania

4. California

5. Michigan

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 3 boxes

Photo: (1 -- color) Truckers labeled the I-5 Freeway, shown here in Santa Clarita, as ``unspeakably bad.''

(2 --color) Trucker Paul Hauk drives on the I-5, described in a survey in the November issue of Overdrive magazine as one of the nation's worst.

Michael Owen Baker/Special to the Daily News

Box: (1) Worst drivers (see text)

(2) Worst stretches of road (see text)

(3) Worst roads overall (see text)