California Highway Patrol overtime contract renewed

By Karen Billing

The Rancho Santa Fe Association board Nov. 3 renewed its contract with the California Highway Patrol to provide additional overtime traffic enforcement throughout the Covenant. The contract, which supplements the regular CHP units that are on patrol in the area, has been renewed every two years since the program began in 2004.

RSF Association Manager Pete Smith said that before the program began the biggest issue the Covenant had was dealing with traffic violations, such as speeding and people crossing double yellow lines to pass on the many one-way streets.

He said that there are virtually no complaints now as more officers are out issuing citations. Their visibility and enforcement has led to a drop in the number of injury accidents as well, RSF Patrol Chief Matt Wellhouser said.

“Not getting the type of accidents we saw before really pays off dividends for the safety of our residents,” Wellhouser said.

So far this year, CHP officers have issued 688 moving violations, the majority for violations such as illegal passing, illegal turns, failure to stop at intersections and violators of the cell phone law.