By Mary O’KEEFE

The California Highway Patrol continued its strong presence in the Crescenta Valley, especially near schools.

On Friday, CHP motor officer Cooper and several other CHP officers kept a watchful eye on the traffic around Rosemont Middle School and, within a 30-minute span, had written over 10 citations.

On Monday, Oct. 15, Cooper was at Rosemont and, in about five minutes, wrote three citations, two to the same driver for separate infractions.

Since school began in August, CHP officers have been at the schools stopping drivers for a variety of reasons, giving them warnings and handing out educational brochures. It is now close to three months since school began and drivers, by now, should know routines, traffic patterns and specific drop-off and pick-up areas for students.

“Our main purpose for being here is we are far beyond the beginning of the school year. [Drivers] should know drop-off procedures,” Cooper said.

Crescenta Valley Town Council President Harry Leon was also at Rosemont Middle School with the CHP.

“I received some emails from parents who are concerned about the drivers,” he said.

The citations near Rosemont covered several infractions including cars stopping in fire lanes to drop off children, cars attempting to turn left into the school where it is clearly marked No Left Turn beginning at 7:30 a.m. and parking in areas where No Parking signs are displayed.

In one case, a driver pulled up behind a CHP unit in a no parking area as the officer was citing another vehicle.

A couple of drivers traveling northbound on Rosemont Avenue slowed and had their child get out of the vehicle and cross the street against traffic to get to school. This is dangerous on several levels including that it is difficult for those traveling southbound to see pedestrians darting across the street due to the traffic congestion.

Earlier, around 7:15 a.m., there was very little traffic. Cars pulled into the Rosemont parking lot, students got out of the vehicle and the drivers continued on their way with little traffic affecting their journey.

At one point a driver was turning left from westbound Los Amigos Street onto southbound Rosemont Avenue. There is a crosswalk at the location that is used by many children, and it has a crossing guard. The driver honked her horn a few times as she inched her way toward the kids who were walking across the crosswalk. The crossing guard held up his “Stop” sign, and the driver honked again. As the kids finished crossing, she drove quickly down the street, turned into the parking lot and stopped near the entrance instead of moving farther into the drop-off area. Thus cars behind the driver began to back up, creating more problems along Rosemont. The student was dropped off and the driver merged into the lane with other vehicles, coming dangerously close to those cars.

For the crossing guard at Rosemont, this is just another day at the school. A few weeks ago, as he was once again holding the Stop sign in the center of the crosswalk allowing several students to cross, a driver was not happy with having to stop for the kids.

“He honked and came towards the crosswalk,” said the guard.

The crossing guard told him to wait.

“He didn’t want any of that,” the guard said.

The driver used a lot of profanity as he yelled at the crossing guard for, apparently, doing his job. When the guard again told him to wait, the driver told the guard he wasn’t wearing the right uniform and that he was not a cop; therefore, the driver did not have to listen to him.

The issue seems to be all about timing for some drivers rushing up and down Rosemont Avenue and dropping their children in dangerous areas.

Officer Cooper had stopped a mom who was going to let her child off in an area where he would have to run across the street in a non-crosswalk area. She was concerned because the traffic line was long and she didn’t want her child to be late.

“Even if you are running late, you need to make certain safety comes first,” Cooper said. “Having a tardy isn’t worth somebody’s safety.”

“We got emails and calls about [CVHS] at lunchtime, too,” Leon added.

The CHP will be throughout the La Crescenta area schools, including CV High School.

“[CHP] is going to be out here,” Cooper said. “If you’re not following the rules you’re going to be cited.”

  Mary Okeefe