The Fight Against Crime: Notes From the Battlefront : Wet Weather Precipitates Hassles for CHP

Much of Wendy Moore’s job involves writing. Outdoors.

That’s made work pretty tough recently.

“Usually when we’re getting wet, pens and pencils don’t work. The paper sticks,” said Moore, a California Highway Patrol officer in the Newhall station who dreads having to write up citations and accident reports in downpours, such as those that plagued Southern California for the past week.

Even inside her cruiser, Moore’s water-logged clothes drip and smear her accident reports. One day she got an idea: She placed a sheet of plastic over the accident report form, filled it in with a grease pencil, and left the plastic sheet attached. But after doing about a dozen of those the reports began to stick together and smudge.

She had to go back to pen and paper, smears and all.

For Highway Patrol officers, there is no way to beat the elements. As the roads get wetter, as visibility worsens, the CHP has to be out more and more, responding to crashes, pulling over reckless drivers who pose even more of a threat to their fellow motorists in the inclement weather.

“We stay busy, that’s for sure,” said CHP Officer Dwight McDonald. “But we do the same job, in rain, sleet, snow or hail, just like the Postal Service.”

Officers are equipped with raincoats, gloves, rain boots and waterproof caps. But clothes can only protect them for so long.

“Our sick time goes up,” coughed McDonald from the Woodland Hills station.

There are changes in CHP procedure in storms. Motorcycle cops are given cars on rainy days.

And officers don’t pull drivers over for minor infractions like expired registrations, because a car being ticketed at the side of the road can lead to rubbernecking and accidents in the rain, McDonald said.

And they don’t chase speeders as determinedly as they do in the sunshine.

“We’re less likely to go driving down the road at 100 m.p.h. in the rain. What we do is let them drive by and get them when they crash,” McDonald said.

Nevertheless, McDonald said, it’s even more important to pull over reckless drivers in the rain, because the accident potential is so much greater.

That makes it more worrisome for CHP officers to venture out in a downpour, they say, knowing that they’re going to be surrounded by drivers who would skid out of control if someone spilled a glass of water in front of their cars.

After all, not every Californian can handle slick roadways like the Highway Patrol officers.

Then again, most Californians haven’t been trained on the Skid Pan.

That’s an apron of polished concrete at the Highway Patrol Academy in Sacramento that can be flooded with liquid soap to make an extremely slippery surface. Officers in training drive on the surface, executing sharp turns, to learn how to drive swiftly but safely over icy or rain-slicked roads. They learn how to handle hydroplaning, spinning out of control, you name it.

“It’s fun-type learning,” McDonald said, remembering his first skid-filled outing. “I embarrassed myself.”

But a few more spins on The Pan, coupled with subsequent visits to the Academy every few years (required for officers), got McDonald used to the feeling of his vehicle skidding out of control. And once you can keep your head in a skid, McDonald said, you can get out of it.

(For those who have forgotten Driver’s Ed, here are some CHP tips: ease off the gas rather than hitting the brakes when sliding, and turn into a skid. In other words, if the car is skidding toward the right, cramp the wheel over to the right; turning left, away from the skid, will probably only send you into a full 360-degree spin.)

McDonald recalls the time he had to check the Golden State Freeway in the Grapevine area, which had been closed during a storm. He drove his CHP Mustang through the mountains and hit a nasty stretch of black ice.

“I felt like I was in Disneyland in the Teacup ride,” McDonald said.

But did he panic? Not this 18-year CHP veteran, survivor of who knows how many trips on The Skid Pan.

He eased off the gas, straightened out, and continued on his way.