Thread: SAN DIEGO MINUTEMEN ADOPT A FREEWAY

San Diego Minutemen adopt a freeway

Near San Clemente, there is a freeway crossing sign (5-feet × 7-feet) warning of people attempting to run across this freeway. This is because there is a border crossing checkpoint on NB I-5 in this area, and people wishing to avoid the INS often attempt (stupidly) to run across the freeway. The unusual signs are a reminder of an era when San Diego County had by far the most freeway pedestrian deaths in the nation. In the 1980s, dozens of illegal aliens were killed or injured each year as they tried to cross the treacherous freeways near the U.S.-Mexico border. Recent efforts have reduced the death rate. There are a variety of factors: beefed-up law enforcement, a doubling of patrols at the border and increased public awareness. The problem reached its height in 1989, when 24 illegal aliens were killed on the freeways near the border. From 1985 to 1987, 128 died and 105 were injured. In 1992, Caltrans erected a special warning sign, and built 10- to 12-foot high median fences in the area. Since that time, the number of injuries and deaths has dropped. Part of this is due to Operation Gatekeeper, a joint operation that fortified walls between San Diego and Tijuana that moved the cross-border traffic to the east. There were none in 1997, the year the California Highway Patrol stopped keeping track. There were no pedestrian fatalities between 1998 and 2002, and there is currently talk that the sign has outlived its usefulness and should be taken down.