Police say most stop sign violators are locals, not visitors
Last week, a trash truck operator on Center Street was seen to be in deep conversation with a Healdsburg police officer about what at first appeared to be a potential accident, turned out to be a warning from the officer to the driver.
He had failed to come to a complete stop at the four-way intersection at Center and Matheson Streets in what is commonly known as a “California stop” or rolling stop.
As the officer went back to his car after the conversation and turned around on Center, he suddenly flipped on lights and sirens, as he had just witnessed another car roll through the same four-way stop.
Incidents like that and chatter on social media, make it clear that this behavior is on the rise, and the Healdsburg Police Department is taking notice. Healdsburg Chief of Police Kevin Burke says his department has stepped up enforcement, and education, in response to community concerns.
“In looking at our stats, our traffic stops have increased significantly in the last 90 days, with a total of 1,302 traffic stops, versus 832 traffic stops in the 90 days period prior to that,” Burke said in an email. “This increase has been in response to community complaints about stop sign violators in particular.”
Though traffic stops have increased, Burke stresses that education is still the focus, for now. “The number of citations given out for stop sign violations during the past 90 days was 17. We continue to give a large number of warnings as we try and educate the public that this is a significant safety concern in our community,” he said.
But while tourists are the favorite target of locals on social media, Burke says stop sign violators are rarely out-of-towners. “The issue over unsafe driving in our community is a local one, and I have observed that personally,” he said.
“When I go out to conduct enforcement, almost everyone violator I encounter is a local. Although we do stop some non-residents, the overwhelming majority of people that our officers stop for all violations are locals.”
And Burke warns that the current grace period of warnings and education will end at some point. “We plan to continue this increased enforcement and will be less inclined to give warnings at some point,” he said. “Our goal is to educate our community about the problem, and work with them to solve it.”
The California Drivers’ Handbook states that 22 percent of all traffic accident deaths in California are from cars versus pedestrians, and that intersection collisions comprise 45 percent of all reported crashes.
Resource limitations will drive enforcement levels, but Burke hopes drivers will take their responsibilities seriously. “At the end of the day, we can’t have a police car at every stop sign in town and we are counting on the community to recognize that driving a car is the most dangerous task that most of us perform every day, and that they have to step up and drive like responsible adults,” he said. “We aren’t going to ticket our way out of the problem, but citations are definitely going to play a role.”
Drivers are often seen to complain on social media that pedestrians are equally distracted and irresponsible, often citing behavior such as stepping into traffic or a crosswalk without looking up from their smartphones.
While Burke says his department has heard some of these complaints, they are a much smaller percentage.
“While I do receive some complaints about pedestrians, most complaints coming from both fellow drivers and pedestrians, is about how people behave when they are behind the wheel,” he said.
