CHP Plan Targets Freeway Crossings

The California Highway Patrol announced Friday a two-part plan to reduce the number of illegal immigrants injured and killed each year while crossing San Diego County freeways.

The plan calls for stepped-up enforcement of speed limits and a public awareness campaign, which will inform pedestrians that it is both illegal and unsafe to cross highways, CHP spokesman John P. Marinez said. Posters touting safety messages will be distributed throughout Southern California, and television and radio announcements carrying similar warnings will be broadcast in Tijuana.

In addition, four more officers will cover a 10-mile area in Oceanside near San Onofre between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. throughout the week, Marinez said. Between two and four more officers will be added to patrol a 20-mile stretch of highway between 6 p.m. and midnight in the San Ysidro area near the border.

Since Jan. 1, two people have been killed while crossing highways in the Oceanside area and one death has been reported in San Ysidro, Marinez said. In the past five years 150 people have been killed and another 100 have been injured in the two areas.

The federally funded program, which carries a $530,000 price tag, will begin on Sunday and is scheduled to run through May of 1993, Marinez said.