The deaths of five California Highway Patrol officers in the line of duty in less than two months has left some experts asking if it's time to review procedures used during traffic stops.
The toll already makes 2010 the deadliest year for the CHP in more than a decade. The most recent fatalities occurred Sunday, with two officers struck and killed in separate roadside incidents.
Ken Tough, a member of the CHP's Citizen Oversight Committee, said he would ask the nine-member panel for a review of the fatalities to see if stop tactics played a role.
"I want to see what are the common threads and brainstorm to come up with some better thinking procedurally," said Tough, a retired General Motors executive.
Officer Brett Oswald, 47, of Paso Robles was killed Sunday while waiting for a tow truck to remove an abandoned car from a road near Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County. A woman lost control of her Toyota Corolla and rear-ended the 21-year veteran's patrol car, officials said.
Earlier in the day, about 200 miles away in the San Bernardino County desert town of Barstow, Officer Justin McGrory, 28, of Victorville and another officer had stopped a car on Interstate 15 when a second vehicle veered onto the shoulder and hit McGrory, authorities said.
Three of the five fatalities this year have occurred during stops. Motorcycle Officer Phillip Ortiz died last week from injuries he sustained June 9 after being struck on the shoulder of Interstate 405 in Los Angeles.
Jon Hamm, chief executive for the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, said his group would support a review of stop procedures and tactics if the CHP commissioned one.
"It's just unbelievable," Hamm said. "It's extraordinary that the officers are doing the right thing and still getting hit."
The CHP was one of the first agencies to train officers to approach vehicles from the passenger's side in a bid to reduce the chances of a collision.
CHP spokesman Terry Liu said it was too early to comment on the recent cases because they remained under investigation. However, he said it was unlikely the deaths had anything to do with agency procedures, which have been in place at least 10 years.
"We are looking at this as a series of tragic events happening in a compressed period of time," Liu said.
Liu declined to discuss tactics used during stops but said accidents are too often caused by drivers not paying attention to their car or surroundings.
"Everyone wants to focus on what we do or don't do, but we are not the only part of the equation," Liu said. "You have all the electronic devices ... people have gotten very far from their primary responsibility of operating a motor vehicle."
Drivers also were advised to pay more attention to a 2007 law requiring them to slow down and move over when approaching an emergency vehicle on the roadside.
"It is imperative that the loss of these officers serve as a reminder to the public to be cautious when approaching emergency incidents on the highway," California Association of Highway Patrolmen President Rob Nelson said in a prepared statement.
Motorcycle Officer Tom Coleman, 33, of Fontana died June 11 after hitting a tractor-trailer while chasing a car at speeds of up to 100 mph in the San Bernardino County town of Redlands. CHP pilot Danny Benavides, 39, died in a plane crash in Imperial County while he was monitoring freeway speeders.
"It has been a difficult time for our law enforcement family and the state of California, losing five of our Highway Patrol officers since May," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "Each has been a terrible loss for our state, and together they underscore what a dangerous job our CHP officers face every day."
Flags at the capitol are being flown at half-staff in honor of the officers.
In 1970, the CHP did a comprehensive overhaul of the way suspects are apprehended after four officers were killed in a gunfight. It represented the biggest loss of life at one time for the CHP.
One CHP officer died last year. The last time five officers were killed in a single calendar year was 1996, according to the CHP's website.
In 2006, former CHP Commissioner Mike Brown ordered a review of safety procedures after a rash of six deaths starting in the fall of 2005.
The agency has about 7,000 officers. More than half of the 220 officers killed in the line of duty during the agency's 80-year history died in roadside collisions, Hamm said.
