CHP WORKS TO SLOW DOWN SPEEDING DRIVERS.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

ACTON - Highway Patrol officers ticketed more than 130 motorists this week for speeding and passing violations in two rush-hour stakeouts along a popular commuter route, officials said.

The traffic enforcement crackdown came as a result of a barrage of complaints from residents and motorists who say reckless drivers are endangering their lives, authorities said.

Positioned at Soledad Canyon and Crown Valley roads from 5 to 7:30 a.m., officers ticketed 78 motorists on Monday and an additional 55 on Wednesday, said Officer Doug Sweeney of the California Highway Patrol's Newhall station.

The road is a popular alternative to the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway for High Desert commuters heading to Santa Clarita or further south.

``The reason we targeted this area is that this is an extremely dangerous two-lane road and it's used as a bypass for freeway traffic,'' Sweeney said. ``Because of speeding and passing on double yellow lines, we've had some head-on collisions and some solo people lose control and wreck in that area.''

In the most flagrant violation, one man was stopped for going 91 mph on the wrong side of the road, Sweeney said, adding that some motorists were ticketed on Monday and again on Wednesday.

``Most everyone we stopped was quiet and just took their ticket and left,'' he said. ``They knew they did something wrong. I only heard one person say he didn't do it.''

While the area has been plagued with speeding motorists for years, authorities said they have not had the manpower to crack down on the problem because they devote most of their resources to traffic enforcement on freeways.

They resolved the issue by pooling officers from three stations - Newhall, Antelope Valley and Altadena - and forming a nine-officer team charged with targeting speeding hot spots in rural areas, Sweeney said.

Officer Rick Gibson, who heads up the team, said he has witnessed the speeding problem firsthand while traveling from his home in Acton to the Newhall CHP Station.

``People pass me on the double yellow line every day on my way to work,'' Gibson said. ``It's been an ongoing problem for years.''

Each week, the team will target a problem area in one of the three districts, Gibson said.

``We're going to address the areas we know are traffic problems,'' he said. ``And most of them are commuter routes with a high volume of traffic.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color -- ran in SAC and AV editions only) CHP Officer Paul Peterson directs speeders to pull over, top, after they were pegged driving faster than the posted 55 mph speed limit on Soledad Canyon Road near Acton early Wednesday morning. Sgt. Mark Odle aims his radar gun at speeders, left, radioing to let other officers know which cars to stop and ticket, above.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer