CHP AFTER HOV VIOLATORS PDQ; PHONY EXCUSES NOT OK $321 FINE DETERS MOST REPEAT OFFENDERS, OFFICER SAYS.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - CHP Officer Jose Ahumada knows all the grades and declines on the Antelope Valley Freeway and he's an expert on the excuses motorists use when they are nabbed for driving in the car-pool lane when they're driving solo.

``The No. 1 excuse I hear from drivers is that they swerved into the HOV lane to avoid a sudden halt in traffic,'' the California Highway Patrol veteran said Tuesday as he eyed traffic on northbound Highway 14 in Canyon Country. ``That's fine, but then you'd better get right back.''

Sure enough, Ahumada cited a solo driver Tuesday evening for using the high-occupancy-vehicle lane. Hoping to avoid the ticket and hefty fine, the man argued, unsuccessfully, that he was simply trying to avoid a sudden sea of brake lights ahead.

According to a traffic division employee at Newhall Superior Court, the minimum fine for an HOV violation is $321, which can increase, depending on a driver's history of violations.

Highway 14 is one of only a handful of freeways in the state that designates a block of time when the HOV lanes are for the exclusive use of vehicles with more than one person inside. During the off hours, when rush hour is not an issue, all motorists are free to use the extra lane, Ahumada said.

Half the battle for CHP officers, however, is trying to discern whether the driver is alone or simply the only occupant tall enough to be seen without stopping the car.

``I'd say 75 percent of the time that I pull people over, they have kids in the car,'' he said. ``That includes babies in car seats and kids who are small enough that you can't see them. If you have an infant in the car, that counts as a car pool. But dogs don't count.''

And pregnant women can't drive alone in the carpool lane - their unborn babies don't count as passengers.

Only one of the nine stops Ahumada made in a two-hour span Tuesday evening nabbed a driver who was alone. All the others had small children in the car or adult passengers who were fully reclined.

But the bulk of the citations are not issued for driving in the lane illegally - officers from the Newhall CHP station are kept busy citing valid carpool-lane vehicles whose drivers enter or exit the HOV lane over a double yellow line.

In 2002, the Newhall station issued 233 tickets to solo drivers using the HOV lane, compared with 475 citations to motorists who crossed the double yellow. To date in 2003, Newhall officers have issued 192 tickets to solo drivers and 315 to those who crossed the double-yellow divider.

Since 1998, the Newhall CHP squad has issued 736 tickets for illegally using the car-pool lane and a staggering 2,374 citations to drivers who crossed the double-yellow line or did not exit the lane in a timely fashion for emergency vehicles.

There are HOV-lane exemptions for solo drivers - those driving electric or hybrid cars with special stickers on the back bumper, and motorcyclists.

Ahumada said he has found one constant in drivers who have been cited for car-pool-lane violations, regardless of their vehicles, socioeconomic status or driving history: The steep fine is a harsh reminder to obey the laws.

``Typically, after a driver has been cited for a car-pool-lane violation and finds out how expensive the ticket is, they tend to be a lot more careful about breaking the law. It's a hard one to forget.''

Amy Raisin, [phone]

amy.raisin(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) California Highway Patrol Officer Jose Ahumada writes a motorist a citation for driving solo in the high-occupancy-vehicle lane on the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway on Tuesday.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer