January, 2000
by Dr. Bill Wattenburg
On Tuesday, December 7, 1999, from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm one hundred thousand commuters were trapped in their cars for 2–3 hours on the Bay Bridge and East Bay freeways when the west exit of the Bay Bridge was closed by Caltrans crews. This was done on the advice of a San Francisco “industrial hygienist” in the local health department who said that human waste that spilled out of an overturned truck was a “health danger” to SF citizens. CHP officers on the scene had earlier determined that there was no danger that compared to the danger of trapping thousands in their cars and told Caltrans crews to clean it up and let the traffic through. A Caltrans maintenance person reportedly said: “We are not cleaning up shit.” The SF health department person conveniently gave them an excuse to sit in their comfortable state cars and wait hours for a special “hazardous waste contractor” to arrive from Oakland.
Experienced doctors have said that there was no significant danger to motorists driving past this spill area compared to the gross insult and health dangers that the 100,000 trapped motorists suffered in their cars.
Trapping thousands of motorists on freeways for hours because of purported toxic dangers often creates far greater health problems for the motorists in addition to enormous public frustration and economic loss. In this age of toxic hysteria, the slightest spill of any unknown substance on a highway too often results in the highway being shut down while multiple bureaucracies scratch their heads over what to do. Invariably, local health or hazardous materials officials will take what they perceive as the safe route in their cars, even though seasoned and experienced California Highway Patrol Officers and Caltrans officials on the scene may not consider the spill to be dangerous to the driving public.
Once a “toxic” determination is made by almost any low-level local official, no matter what his or her credentials may be, CHP and Caltrans officers are obligated to close down the freeway and call in special contractors who may be hours away. This bureaucratic strangulation of the driving public has to stop. Proper control and authority over California’s highways and freeways must be returned to the CHP and Caltrans who are responsible for keeping our roadways open and safe for the working public that pays for everything in this state. Suggested below are some sensible rules that should be established by the governor and/or the legislature:
A panel of qualified physicians and scientists must be assembled by the Governor’s Office to establish sensible rules and regulations for how various substances can be handled by the CHP and Caltrans. Specifically, the CHP and Caltrans must be given guidelines as to when certain substances can be moved, covered, or removed by Caltrans personnel so that traffic can proceed at safe speeds.
The scientific panel shall determine what, if any, dangers or health risks will occur if motorist simply drive by the most common “toxic” substances that are spilled on highways. This is called the “bypass danger.”
This scientific panel shall also determine the most probable health consequences on people trapped in their cars for periods of time greater than one half hour. This is called “stall danger.”
The scientific panel shall then provide a comparison between the “bypass danger” and the “stall danger” for the most likely situations that CHP and Caltrans officers will encounter on our highways.
The California Legislature must pass a law that protects the CHP and Caltrans from lawsuits by any citizens who claim that they were harmed because highways were kept open on the basis of the guidelines established by the scientific panel commissioned by the state. This immunity should be extended to protect the state against lawsuits by CHP and/or Caltrans workers who claim they were damaged while carrying out the cleanup orders by CHP and/or Caltrans officials when such orders are given in good faith based on the scientific guidelines.
The state highway maintenance workers who are paid handsomely to keep our highways open and safe must be willing to take reasonable risks that are no more dangerous than the risks that CHP officers and the doctors and nurses in our hospitals willingly and knowingly face everyday in performing their duties.
Indeed, the legal test should be that damage claims cannot be made against the state so long as highway maintenance workers are not required to expose themselves to risks any greater than those willingly undertaken by emergency medical personnel and doctors and nurses responding to the same emergency.
With these rules and laws in place, the motorists of California could be freed from the “toxic-scare lobby” hysteria and tyranny that is turning freeway driving into a living nightmare for millions every week, as well as endangering their health and strangling our economy. Under the present absurd procedures for responding to so-called toxic dangers on our freeways, any amateur terrorist can throw a one pound bag of pure white flour onto the freeway and have the sheer joy of watching a hundred thousand motorists trapped in their cars for hours.
Copyright © 2000 Dr. Bill Wattenburg
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