CAMARILLO : Officials to Crack Down on Speeders

Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard is working with Pleasant Valley School District officials and the California Highway Patrol to crack down on speeders near Santa Rosa Elementary School.

Howard recently met with Associate Supt. Howard Hamilton from the school district, Capt. Charles Campbell of the CHP and Al Knuth of the county’s Public Works Department to discuss the traffic problems plaguing the school in the 13000 block of Santa Rosa Road, said Ritch Wells, a spokesman for the supervisor.

Wells said Howard has received numerous phone calls and letters from parents worried about speeders and the high volume of traffic on the narrow two-lane roadway. He said Howard and school officials are pushing to get a traffic signal installed near the school to allow children to cross the road safely.

“It’s very dangerous,” Hamilton said of the traffic problem. He said students who live in nearby neighborhoods cannot walk to school because there is no place to cross.

“The only way they can come into the school is by car or bus,” Howard said, adding that the school first proposed either a traffic signal or an overpass two years ago. He said it was later determined that a traffic light would be the best solution because the area’s many horseback riders would not be able to use an overpass.

Wells said Knuth advised officials that it could take a year to install a traffic light.

Howard requested that Campbell step up radar enforcement on the roadway in the meantime. Although stretched for manpower, Campbell agreed to put radar-equipped officers on the roadway on an intermittent basis.