DRIVE 4 LIFE
	OCTOBER 2003

by Cliff Kroeger

Stephen King could have written the scenario for an experience I once had... Except the experience was real. One night on my way home from my shift I came across a violent traffic collision. A car had overturned and had ejected several people. I was first on the scene so I immediately got out of my vehicle and began to check the injured and dead. Several victims were deceased, but I recognized one of the seriously wounded people as a young lady from my local beat. She was grievously injured and was having difficulty breathing. I opened an airway, and waited with her for help to arrive.

Even though the young lady appeared to be unconscious, I spoke soothing reassuring words to her. When I visited her a week later in the hospital she told me that she had heard me talking and had recognized my voice. She had listened to my calming words, she said, and then added that knowing I was there made her believe that everything was under control and that she would be fine. She took strength from my presence.

I’m grateful to be in a profession that equips me to carry out interventions like the one I just described and that provides me with opportunities to make that kind of difference in a person’s life!

Serving and Protecting I’ve been in public safety all my professional career, beginning as a firefighter in Northern California. In that position I served as a reserve police officer and developed a growing interest in the field of law enforcement, particularly in traffic enforcement.

The hands-on character of law enforcement is what attracted me to the profession because it permits me to deal directly with the public and make a real difference. The fact is, traffic enforcement really does play a big role in reducing traffic collisions. We professionals can see the results. I discovered, for example, that enforcement in dangerous locations creates a direct outcome in reduced accidents and deaths.

The biggest payoff for me in my service as a highway patrol officer comes from helping people. I derive satisfaction from the simple task of stopping to assist someone. Being able to provide help to a person in need always makes me glad to be in the profession I’m in. I’m saving lives. That’s something to feel good about.

Once I made the decision to move into traffic enforcement, it was a logical step to apply to the Highway Patrol, since traffic enforcement, of course, is the Highway Patrol’s main task. Now I’ve been in enforcement for 35 years. At the Highway Patrol we always try to convey an attitude towards public safety by driving home messages about driving defensively and observing safety issues.

Buckle up and save your life
One of our main safety messages is that drivers should always wear their seat belts. Seat belt use is the single most important thing that people can do to increase their safety when riding in or driving an automobile. It is one of the basic fundamental protections. Research projects on the subject have never failed to prove that seat belts save lives. For example, your chances of surviving an accident when you remain in a vehicle are increased by 700 percent. In other words, you are seven times more likely to be killed in an accident when you are ejected from a vehicle.

During the last Fourth of July weekend half the fatalities we saw were people not wearing seat belts.

In spite of all the evidence showing how effective seat belts are, many people just don’t wear them. When they are caught without their seat belt on, a lot of them tell us, “I forgot to put it on just this once. I normally always wear it.”

A number of people, especially young people, simply refuse to wear their seat belts. It’s some kind of macho thing, perhaps. We give some people citations and instead of taking the warning to heart and modifying their behavior, some of them adopt the attitude that we are hassling them and treating them unkindly. We encounter repeat offenders who do the same thing over and over, just riding around and sitting on their seat belts.

It is difficult to convey to such people that there is a purpose behind the ticket they’ve just received. If they would only be wise, they could conclude that they had spent some money in learning a valuable lesson, then just buckle up and maybe save their lives someday.

Working together to make a difference
The portion of Highway 4 from Brentwood to the San Joaquin County line (at Old River Bridge) has shown an increase in traffic collisions over the past few years. The heavily traveled two-lane blacktop has become a major route for the area’s burgeoning commute traffic. We’re working on a project to make a difference in this East County driving problem. The safety program grew out of the concern of a number of people, but the real impetus for the program began with an accident. Dave Pipho, Councilman from Discovery Bay, was involved in a serious crash on Hwy. 4 and decided to do something about it. Dave met with us and with Senator Tom Torlakson to see what could be done. As an outcome of that meeting we are now administering a Safety Corridor Program that was developed to be used for difficult stretches of road in the State of California. We are targeting the processes and procedures of that program to this stretch of Highway in the program we call Drive4Life.
The Drive4Life committee now includes members from a number of different organizations:
• CHP
• CalTrans
• City of Brentwood Police Department
• City of Brentwood City Council (Annette Beckstrand)
• State Senator Tom Torlakson
• State Assemblyman Guy Houston
• Contra Costa County Supervisor Millie Greenberg
• AAA
• Discovery Bay Town Council (David Pipho)
• OTS (California Office of Traffic Safety — doing the funding, accountability)
• Contra Costa County Public Works

The Drive4Life program provides a helpful framework for examining three important elements in public safety: Enforcement, Education, and Engineering. We focus on all three elements as we identify what causes the crashes on this stretch of road and what we can do to limit them.

Education and Enforcement
Our focus on Education is most apparent as we use media to get the word out about safe driving. For example, we conduct classroom training for schools and citizen groups that will meet with us. We publish brochures and notices in local newspapers.

Senator Torlakson was the key person in passing a State bill doubling fines in the corridor. The signs announcing to passing motorists the double fines exert a special type of education effect and, in effect, become a particular kind of educational media for getting out the message to drive carefully. We’ve increased signage of other kinds. For example, we have “headlights on” signs. All of these things contribute to increasing consciousness and reducing head-on collisions.

Engineering
Caltrans represents the engineering part of the task force, working closely with the Contra Costa Country Public works. All of us on the Drive4Life Committee boarded a bus last April and toured the length of the road to come up with ideas of what might improve conditions (e.g., changes in striping, signage, signals, and roadway design).

Challenges like those poised by the Brentwood to San Joaquin section of Highway 4 provides agencies with opportunities to demonstrate cohesiveness in working together for a common good. I have been encouraged by participating in the Drive4Life project and the ways in which multiple agencies can come together for the common purpose of reducing injuries and creating a safe route for people to travel on.

Being a CHP Officer has been a good profession for me. Whether writing a citation to a 16-year-old kid driving his dad’s car 100 MPH or serving on a committee to reduce deaths on a stretch of highway, I’m helping people. I’m saving lives. I’m making a difference.