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Another way to fix crosswalks?

Just before 9 a.m. Sunday, a 97-year-old visually impaired woman was struck while trying to cross East Washington Street at Elly Boulevard South in Petaluma. Petaluma Police officers found her in the crosswalk with moderate injuries, along with a 62-year-old driver who told them she hadn't seen the pedestrian until [...]

By | March 20th, 2013|6 Comments

Big changes at the Road Warrior

We're changing drivers at the Road Warrior blog. After nearly three years of writing the column -- and 29 years at The Press Democrat -- I'm retiring on Monday and Linda Castrone, editor of The Press Democrat's Towns section, will take over Tuesday. She'll do an excellent job. The column [...]

By | March 3rd, 2013|28 Comments

Disabled parking: It’s expensive if you’re not

You’re just going to run into the store for a couple of minutes, but there’s no parking nearby, except for the spot reserved for the disabled. Ahh, you figure, it’ll only be a couple of minutes – what could it hurt? It could hurt your wallet, not to mention keeping [...]

By | February 20th, 2013|6 Comments

Mailbag: What’s a STAR smog test? Bicyclists must follow rules of the road

We've had several readers write in asking what the new STAR smog test program is. Here's an answer: The state Bureau of Automotive Repair on Jan. 1 changed its smog test program by eliminating Gold Shield smog-check stations, which generally handled potentially high polluting vehicles, and creating STAR test stations, [...]

By | January 11th, 2013|7 Comments

19-day Sonoma County crackdown on DUIs to get under way

Sonoma County police officers for 19 days will be cracking down on DUI drivers. The county's Avoid the 13 anti-DUI task force will begin its annual, stepped-up Christmas-New Year's enforcement on Friday, with a DUI/license checkpoint at an undisclosed location. The checkpoint will be one of four the task force [...]

By | December 12th, 2012|3 Comments

Petaluma gets $600,000 in traffic enforcement grants

More than $600,000 in state traffic enforcement grants have been awarded recently to Petaluma police for a range of operations, including Sonoma County’s Avoid the 13 anti-DUI Task Force. Here are quick looks at each grant: –The biggest is $300,000 for a variety of traffic safety crackdowns by Petaluma police. [...]

By | November 19th, 2012|7 Comments

Mailbag: Petaluma roundabout, illegal U-turn

Here's a question from a Road Warrior reader: For the last 3 weeks I've watched the police presence at the roundabout near 101 on Petaluma Blvd S change from enforcement to encroachment.  There's been an officer stationed at the roundabout 4 of 5 mornings every single week, often with TWO [...]

By | November 17th, 2012|6 Comments

3 DUI/license checkpoints this weekend

Police in Sonoma County plan three DUI/license checkpoints this weekend. Santa Rosa officers will run a checkpoint from 7 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday at a location police won't disclose. The Avoid the 13 Sonoma County DUI Task Force, in which all county police agencies participate, will hold two [...]

By | August 30th, 2012|7 Comments

Petaluma warns of SMART road closures

There's a train coming, and Petaluma is trying to get the word out that the related construction next month will shut several streets at rail crossings. "It'll be a bit of a mess. People will find a way (around it), they will have to, " said Petaluma Police Sgt. Ken [...]

By | August 26th, 2012|1 Comment

Five-peat for Petaluma police

It's a five-peat for Petaluma police. For the fifth year in a row, the department was honored by the California Law Enforcement Challenge  for having the best  program of cracking down on impaired drivers among the state's police departments. (When it comes to five-peats, the New York Yankees [...]

By | August 12th, 2012|3 Comments