Winchester Road targeted: CHP, two cities take aim at speeders on busy road

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Wednesday, June 8, 2005 10:16 PM PDT ∞

Stretching from Hemet to Temecula, Winchester Road is one of the longest and busiest commuter roads in Southwest County. With its lengthy straightaways and lots of drivers trying to get somewhere in a hurry, it has also been one of the area's most dangerous thoroughfares.

"Our last two major crashes in Murrieta ... have been on Winchester Road, and both of those involved high speed," Murrieta police motorcycle Officer Jay Froboese said. "We will be giving (the road) a lot of attention."

The latest major crash there happened over the weekend, when a Menifee woman was killed near Auld Road when her Toyota veered over the yellow lines and hit a sport utility vehicle head-on.

On Wednesday, officers from three different law enforcement agencies teamed up as part of an ongoing program to try and slow drivers down on the highway.

The program, called Winchester Road Interagency Traffic Enforcement, brings together officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Murrieta and Temecula police departments with a single mission ---- to write tickets for violations, particularly speeding.

Two Murrieta motorcycle officers targeted speeders Wednesday morning along the southbound lanes of Winchester Road from about Hunter Road to Murrieta Hot Springs Road, where the speed limit is 55 mph.

In just two hours, 17 tickets were issued to violators for speeds ranging from 68 mph to 86 mph, Froboese said.

CHP Officer Jack Mears said the interagency program started from numerous complaints about speeding. After a look at how many crashes also were taking place there, officers knew something had to be done.

"We found that all the involved agencies can achieve more by working together in this," Mears said.

Officers from the three agencies have been fanning out along Winchester Road periodically since January. When the same program was last conducted on May 4, nearly 150 tickets were written by 11 officers from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mears said.

"Somebody, say coming from Hemet, sees officers stopping cars all the way into Temecula. That leaves a vivid picture in their mind that they'd better slow down," Mears said as he headed north on Winchester Road, with the radar unit in his CHP cruiser seeking out southbound speeders.

George Corona was one of the 11 drivers Mears issued a ticket to Wednesday. The 37-year-old Hemet man said he knew he was going too fast, "but I was in a rush to get to work."

Since he works in Temecula, Corona said he drives Winchester Road at least five days a week, so he's quite familiar with speeding vehicles.

"People start flying when the road widens out," Corona said. "I've seen some pretty bad accidents."

Having officers looking for violators along the road is a good idea, Corona said: "It keeps people aware of the problem here."

That's precisely the goal of the program.

"We always see a direct link from enforcement like this to a reduction in traffic accidents," said Temecula police Sgt. Mike Pino, who supervises the department's traffic division.

Temecula's segment of Winchester Road runs from about Winchester Creek Road, near Murrieta Hot Springs Road, southwest to Diaz Road.

With The Promenade mall and Chaparral High School along that stretch of the road, Temecula officers have some unique issues, Pino said.

The school zone needs to be watched closely for speeders, he said, and the mall is a destination point leading to some heavily congested intersections. Temecula officers key in on speeders, but also issue tickets for motorists running red lights and other right-of-way violations, Pino said.

On Wednesday, four Temecula motorcycle officers keyed in on Winchester Road from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Pino said.

During that time they wrote 61 tickets ---- 47 for speeding, seven for red light violations, five for not wearing seat belts and two for not yielding the right of way, the sergeant said.

More than 100 tickets were issued Wednesday by officers from all three involved agencies, Mears said.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.