CHP TO ADD AIR PATROL ON 14 FREEWAY : ACCIDENTS ON ONE STRETCH UP 50% SINCE SWITCH FROM 55 MPH.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

Seeking to stem a jump in accidents on the Antelope Valley Freeway since the abolition of the national 55 mph speed limit, the Highway Patrol announced Thursday that it plans to patrol the roadway by air.

A single-engine airplane based in Barstow will start patrols next month from Santa Clarita into the Antelope Valley on Highway 14, where speeds have been steadily increasing since January, said Capt. Greg Augusta, head of the CHP's Newhall Office.

Preliminary statistics released by the office show that accidents on the freeway within the jurisdiction of the Newhall Office are up more than 50 percent through the beginning of this month.

``There is a feeling amongst the road patrol that average speeds are creeping up. We are concerned,'' Augusta said. ``Speed is either the primary cause of our fatal or injury accidents, or at least it's related. We are not trying to issue tickets. We are just trying to slow folks down.''

The CHP's airplane patrols are common in rural counties, but the key commuter freeway will be the only one in Los Angeles County to be patrolled by the agency's Cessna 185 aircraft, he said.

Since the start of the year, there have been 156 accidents on the freeway from Newhall to Acton, injuring 74 people and killing three. For the same period last year, 101 accidents were recorded, with 60 injuries and one fatality.

Statistics were not immediately available for the portion of the roadway patrolled by the CHP's Antelope Valley office, but Augusta said similar increases have been noticed.

The maximum speed limit on the freeway has been posted at 65 mph since early this year when the national 55 mph limit imposed since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s was lifted.

The freeway was among 2,800 miles of roadway Caltrans posted at 65 mph following the federal government's decision.

Augusta said drivers, many of whom commute long distances on the freeway, seem to believe that the new speed limit has given them an additional 10 mph cushion from speeding tickets.

``We don't have statistics yet (on average speed). But I drive the roadway, and it looks like speeds are up,'' he said. ``A lot of local folks from the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys are the ones speeding. We are trying to stop people from getting injured.''

The aircraft will work with a team of officers on the ground, flying over the freeway, pacing speeders and then identifying the vehicles to ground officers who will issue the tickets, Augusta said.

Unlike freeways in more urbanized parts of the county, the Antelope Valley Freeway presents ideal conditions for an airplane to monitor. It has long stretches of straight, wide-open roadway, he said.

Most of the speeding is taking place outside the rush hour, he said.

Drivers should expect that they will be ticketed if they are driving more than 4 miles per hour over the limit. The small measure of grace is allowed for inaccurate speedometers, he said.

Caltrans workers have been checking the freeway to ensure that legally mandated signs warning of the air patrols are still in place. They were put up a few years ago, but the patrols never began, Augusta said.

While the freeway will be the only stretch to be patrolled by aircraft in the county, the action is not unprecedented locally.

Several years ago, portions of the Golden State Freeway in the Santa Clarita area were patrolled by air, Augusta said.

The legislation raising the national speed limit was reluctantly signed by President Clinton last year after Congress attached the measure to a multibillion-dollar highway bill.

The CHP supported the corresponding increase in state speed limits, reasoning that the 55 mph limit was an arbitrarily low speed for California freeways, which had been designed for higher speeds.

State CHP officials had said many drivers already ignored the law, creating a whole class of lawbreakers, and they did not expect that raising the limit would raise average speeds.