Every available CHP officer will be on patrol this Christmas weekend, particularly looking for holiday partyers who've had too much to drink. The stepped up enforcement is statewide with a goal of putting 80 percent of CHP officers on the roads. For Sonoma County's office, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said [...]
Here's a class that every teen driver should take, and if they do, they may just save their life. The CHP is offering a two-hour class for teens 15 to 19 and their parents about the rights and wrongs of driving and how to avoid crashes and tickets. Thousands of [...]
It's Thanksgiving, and you're driving to a relative's house for turkey dinner. If you're going by yourself, stay out of the car-pool lanes during car-pool hours. Yes, car-pool lane hours are in effect Monday through Friday regardless if Thursday happens to be Thanksgiving or if another holiday falls on one [...]
With construction work on widening Highway 101 now extended from Pepper Road to just south of Petaluma Boulevard North, Caltrans has lowered the speed limit there to 55 mph. CHP Officer Jon Sloat promises "regular enforcement in the area." Typically, he said, officers will park in the construction zone on [...]
A Road Warrior reader asked the other day if it is legal to use your cellphone's GPS system while driving. The answer from CHP Officer Jon Sloat, spokesman for the Sonoma County office, is yes, it is legal, because the law regarding cellphone use only specifies holding it to talk [...]
Here's a question from a reader: I don't have a hands free system for my phone because I don't believe in using the phone while I drive. However, I occasionally see seriously erratic drivers who I strongly suspect are drunk or impaired. Before the cellphone law, I would call the [...]
Here's a question from a reader: Out on some rural roads in the county, it’s double yellow lines all the way. Sometimes I have to cross it to pass bicyclists. Is what I’m doing legal? Peter CHP Officer Jon Sloat responded: By the letter of the law, yes, it is [...]
Local police are cracking down today on drivers who not going hands-free with cellphones or are texting. It's part of a month-long, zero-tolerance campaign by dozens of police agencies statewide to ticket drivers who are being distracted by using their cellphones, texting or even such things as eating or grooming. [...]
Going to Grandma's house for Christmas? The CHP will be watching. Starting at 6 p.m. Friday and continuing through midnight Sunday, the CHP is beefing up its patrols in the state, including on the North Coast, to watch for DUI suspects and drivers violating traffic laws. "The holiday season is [...]
The Thanksgiving weekend crackdown on speeders by the CHP yielded 54 tickets in Santa Rosa, with one driver caught going 96 mph. Officer Jon Sloat said a team of officers set up Friday and Sunday along Highways 12 and 101, spending an hour at each location both days. In the [...]