Canyons : CHP Increases Patrols on Santiago, Silverado Roads

Motorcyclists zipping down the winding roads of Santiago and Silverado Canyons will have to watch out for the California Highway Patrol, which began stepped-up enforcement on roads in those areas last week.

Officer Corky Elliott said the program is a response to five deaths from motorcycle accidents in the last two months in the canyons and to complaints from residents about street racing.

“The racers like to go out there and speed around,” he said. “They know we don’t patrol there as heavily as other areas.”

Officers are being taken off their regular beats to patrol the canyons, Elliott said, until there is some “noticeable reduction” in accidents.

Over the weekend, the first arrest in the crackdown was made when a 15-year-old motorcyclist led a CHP motorcycle officer on a 27-minute chase through Santiago Canyon at speeds exceeding 100 m.p.h., until the officer finally struck the youth’s bike with his own to bring him to a halt.

The boy was charged with evading arrest and reckless driving, and then was taken to the Brea Neuropsychiatric Hospital for observation.