After three fatalities in four months, CHP is cracking down on Lakeville

After an 83-year-old man died on Lakeville Highway last week, marking the third death on the notorious roadway since June, the California Highway Patrol will be boosting enforcement to keep motorist safe.

“It’s not the roadway that’s deadly, it’s the people driving it,” warned Officer Jon Sloat of the CHP, who added that speeding and crossing the double yellow line are the most common causes of crashes.

The CHP continues to investigate why an 83-year-old Granite Bay man crossed the center line on Sept. 18, colliding his Lexus head-on with a BMW driven by Andrew Lang, 53, of Sea Ranch. The Granite Bay man was pronounced dead at the scene, while his passenger and Lang both sustained major injuries.

“We hope to know more after the autopsy,” Sloat said, adding that a medical issue may have caused the crash.

The following weekend, the CHP bolstered patrols on the highway, issuing 30 citations on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a trend they plan to continue until drivers get the hint.

“We had the same issue when I first got here in 2001,” Sloat said, adding that a few months of increased enforcement seemed to quell the number of accidents. “It’s just one of those things that goes up and down. It got better, so we focused on other areas that were worse. This is the first year in a while that we’ve had so many fatalities out there, so obviously we need to spend more time out there.”

Sgt. Jim Stephenson of the Petaluma Police Department agreed that speeding is a leading cause of crashes in the city’s stretch of Lakeville Highway.

“We just caught a guy going 85 (mph) in a 45,” he said. “It’s really common, especially when people are on their way to or from work.”

Petaluma resident Jesse Cockrill is facing 8 years after pleading no contest last month to vehicular manslaughter and DUI for causing a head-on collision on Lakeville in June, that killed Betty Osotonu, 65, a Vallejo grandmother. Another life was lost on Lakeville in August, when a freak accident caused a pizza oven to unhook from the van towing it, killing Dwayne Usher, 32, and severely injuring his two young sons.