Drivers Must Heed Cleanup Crew Barricades

* This is regarding the Dec. 6 storm that hit the Newport Coast area.

I am a construction inspector for the county of Orange. On Newport Coast Drive between San Joaquin Hills Road and Vista Ridge Road, the road was covered deep in mud and debris from runoff from the nearby construction project.

By the time I came upon the problem area, the developer and contractor had the road barricaded and were working to clear the roads. They had men, large equipment and trucks moving on the road, cleaning the mud and debris so that motorists could get through.

However, people who live in the area kept driving through the barricades and through the work area. This showed total arrogance, ignorance and in some cases belligerence to the situation. Nearly everyone who wanted to go through the barricades said that they could see their home from the barricades, so why couldn’t they go through?

Ignore the fact that the mud was between them and their home. Almost all then asked how they were supposed to get home. If you have lived in the home longer than one week, you should know more than one way to get to your home. Maybe if you drove your BMW or Lexus or Mercedes somewhere other than from your home to Fashion Island and back, you might find another way home.

There were those who argued with me just because they thought they were important. One man said he had to get home because he was on call to the emergency room. I informed him that I was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the start of the rainy season to the end, but he still couldn’t go through.

Then there were those people who just drove past me; I had to hope they would not hit the men working in the mud so that these people could have a safe road to drive on.

Just because people are wealthy doesn’t give them the right to ignore safety signs and barricades. They are there for their protection as well as those working below the barricades.

Learn more than one route to and from home. I know of five routes to the homes these people live in, and I live in Anaheim.

And finally, no need to be belligerent. The people working on cleaning the road don’t want to be there any more than motorists want them there, especially on a rainy Saturday morning.

MIKE REETZ

Anaheim