GILROY
– Two weeks into the new school year, law enforcement officials
combined efforts to encourage safe driving and protect children,
parents and commuters traveling near Santa Clara County
schools.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Two weeks into the new school year, law enforcement officials combined efforts to encourage safe driving and protect children, parents and commuters traveling near Santa Clara County schools.
With the beginning of school comes increased traffic and a host of violations that endanger the lives of children, parents and commuters that walk, bike or drive through school zones. Gilroy Police Department joined the countywide “Operation Safe Passage” last week to enforce traffic laws and create safe traffic zones around schools.
“We deal with any and all traffic-related issues, pedestrian issues, parking issues,” said School Resource Officer Mike Terasaki. “We (focused) on those to try and keep the area as safe as possible.”
Gilroy Police patrolled school zones before and after school, concentrating on hazardous violations, such as speeding, denying pedestrians the right of way, passing school buses that have red lights flashing, violating child restraint and seat belt laws and other “collision-causing” violations, including running stop signs. GPD patrol cars were posted at one or two Gilroy schools each day last week, involving 20 officers in the operation.
“If people see the presence, maybe they’ll think twice before doing it again,” Terasaki said.
GPD issued a total of 18 citations for various traffic violations, which is slightly fewer than last year, Terasaki said.
“I think they’re starting to behave, but who knows how long that will last,” he said.
Gilroy High School was a particular focus of the operation, and a patrol car was stationed there both before and after school each day.
“We have a large amount of traffic, as you can tell,” Terasaki said. “It’s just horrendous. There’s a lot of violations there.”
The shortage of parking and large number of people and cars trying to occupy a limited space at the same time make the area of Tenth and Princevalle streets a prime place to catch traffic violators, Terasaki said.
“It’s real tough,” he said. “Until we can improve and get more parking in the area, it’s going to be tough.”
GPD participates in the program each year, both at the start of the year in fall and again in late winter. California Highway Patrol participates in the operation countywide, but CHP officers in Gilroy were unable to contribute this year, Terasaki said. He expects CHP will participate when the operation takes place later in the year.
Countywide, CHP reports that 2,377 citations and 1,163 warnings were issued, 53 cars were towed and 24 arrests were made, according to Officer Les Bishop.
Of those who broke the law, 1,036 were speeding, 44 ran stop signs, 27 passed school buses with red lights flashing, 48 violated child seat laws, 225 were not wearing seat belts, 28 failed to yield to pedestrians, 15 jaywalked and 590 committed various other moving violations. Several law enforcement agencies have not yet reported their citations to Bishop, but he expects the final numbers will compare with last years.’
