Accidents on 55 Freeway Up 77%, New Study Claims

Accidents on the Costa Mesa Freeway jumped 77% after new high-speed lanes for buses and car pools were opened in mid-November, according to a new analysis by an organization of commuters who want to reopen the lanes to regular traffic.

The new accident figures, disputed by Orange County transportation officials, are based on an earlier safety review by the state Department of Transportation. The data shows far fewer accidents on the freeway before the opening of the commuter lanes than what Caltrans has reported in recent months.

Caltrans, using a relatively high accident rate for the freeway last year, has reported that the number of accidents decreased since cars with two or more occupants were offered exclusive use of two new lanes striped into the median of the freeway on an 11-mile stretch between Orange and Costa Mesa.

However, Drivers for Highway Safety on Monday produced an analysis of a safety review prepared by Caltrans in August of last year that shows a much lower accident rate for the freeway over the past three years than the rate presently cited.

Claims to Speak for 2,200 Commuters

“The safety factor is much worse than the public has been made aware,” said Joe Catron, a former sports car racer who heads Drivers for Highway Safety. The group claims to represent about 2,200 commuters unhappy with the car-pool lanes.

While Caltrans and the Orange County Transportation Commission believe the car-pool lanes have cut driving time and allowed a much larger number of people to use the freeway during rush hour, the commuter organization says that it is unsafe to have high-speed car-pool traffic moving next to backed-up rush-hour traffic with nothing more than a painted barrier in between.

Caltrans did a survey of accidents during the seven-week period preceding the opening of the commuter lanes in November and found an average of 25 accidents per week. Accidents averaged only 20 per week during a seven-week period after the car-pool lanes opened, prompting Caltrans officials to conclude that the new lanes may actually have enhanced safety.

But Catron noted that the agency’s own preliminary study of the car-pool-lane project--which looked at a three-year period from 1982 to 1985--showed a total of 1,999 accidents before the car-pool lanes were opened, or an average of 12.8 per week.

When that is compared to the current average of 22.5 accidents per week (an analysis that takes in a 13-week period, rather than seven weeks), it indicates a 77% increase in accidents, Catron said.

Agencies Dispute Comparison

Though neither Caltrans nor county Transportation Commission officials had copies of the study issued Monday, both disputed Catron’s comparison.

Dave Roper, deputy director of Caltrans’ Los Angeles district, said overall traffic congestion on the freeway has increased significantly over the past three years, accounting for a higher accident rate than what would be measured in a three-year average, with or without the car-pool lanes.

“I think the way we’re looking at it now is a good indication of what was happening before the project (in terms of accident rates),” Roper said. “That’s what we ought to compare it with--what was happening before the project, and what was happening after the project.”

Moreover, Sharon Greene of the county Transportation Commission said the statistics in the environmental impact report include only those accident reports taken by California Highway Patrol officers at the accident scene. They do not include reports filed by citizens over the counter, which normally would raise the accident statistics by as much as 30%, she said.

“It’s like apples and oranges in terms of comparing the two,” Greene said. “Also, there has been a tremendous growth in traffic on the 55 (Costa Mesa Freeway). The EIR was written about a year ago, and the accident level has changed on all facilities over the past three years. . . . Old data is not comparable.”

Reasons for Findings

But Bill Ward, who compiled the new analysis for Drivers for Highway Safety, said the arguments of Caltrans and the Transportation Commission do not hold up for several reasons.

First, he said, it is unfair to use accident statistics from the seven weeks immediately preceding the opening of the car-pool lanes, since they were compiled during a period when the lanes were being constructed, a period when construction equipment and highway workers probably disrupted the normal flow of traffic.

Ward also disputed the impact that failing to include over-the-counter accident reports would have on the statistics, estimating that they would account for only about 5% of the accident reports.

In any case, he said, statistics on injury accidents would undoubtedly include only those reports filed by CHP officers, and they, too, show a significant increase: 4.75 a week over the three years measured in the environmental impact report, and 6.22 per week during the car-pool lanes’ first nine weeks of operation.