Last Friday night in front of Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine a car crashed into a street light pole. The California Highway Patrol later made an arrest for suspicion of Driving Under the Influence and Hit and Run.
According to Inyo Sheriff Bill Lutze, the collision took place just after 7:30 Friday night. Inyo deputies responded to assist the California Highway Patrol. Lone Pine Fire and Ambulance also rushed to the scene. Sheriff Lutze said the driver and passenger were later located on Main Street.
According to CHP Officer Dennis Cleland, officers arrested Corey Brandon Flynn, 27 of Lone Pine. Cleland said Flynn was driving his 2005 red Pontiac GTO and was apparently making a left turn prior to crashing into the light pole. Flynn was arrested on suspicion of DUI and misdemeanor Hit and Run. Toxicology tests are pending. Inyo Deputies transported Flynn to the Inyo County Jail for the CHP.
According to CHP Officer Cleland, a passenger in the same car, Jaime Bercum, 30, of Lone Pine, suffered upper body pain and was transported to Southern Inyo Hospital.
Sheriff Lutze said that for years law enforcement has received reports of fast drivers on back streets of towns throughout the County. He said his Department and CHP have issued citations and made stops. CHP Officer Cleland agreed. He said that citizens with legitimate and ongoing traffic concerns with times and dates can file complaints and officers will respond.
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Sounds like a few people got some speeding tickets and they’re just angry about it.
They need to hire more officers – the 395 is a long stretch of highway to patrol for the number of officers here (I’ve heard single digit numbers). I’ve seen near misses, extreme speeders, impatient drivers tailgating, cutting off vehicles, and nearly running cars off the road. I’ve heard numerous fatalities because of these bad drivers. Once in a while, we get the pleasure of seeing a bad driver getting a ticket. Drivers these days seem to forget they neither own the road nor are the only ones on it. It’s not practical for the few CHP officers we have to constantly drive around hoping to catch a speeder (this isn’t LA where there is so much crammed into a small area) . I feel better seeing a cop sitting on the side of the road (because cops have to be visible these days). If you’re up in arms about that – stop speeding. Wherever you’re going will be there when you get there whether you’re going 65 or 90, but you might not make it.
As for the known speeders in Lone Pine (or the people constantly driving drunk around here in Olancha), the cops can’t arbitrarily write tickets or arrest someone for DUI unless they witness it and for the reasons stated above can’t sit around Lone Pine all day and night. People need to report them when it happens. You can’t complain about a problem while doing nothing to help the problem.
How did you get here? You are way too rational and sensible for this blog.
Nice post by the way….
So you guys in Lone Pine have a couple stealthy speeders in town.Flying under the radar. Everybody in town knows about them. The color, make and year of their cars. But yet they still elude/evade law enforcerment. How embarrassing for Johnny Law. Your town is not that big. You got lucky this time. What about next time?
I wish the CHP would set up a speed trap somewhere near olancha, and install cameras,
it is a dangerious place on the weekends and hoidays.
“Speed traps” are prohibited by the vehicle code, and thank goodness they are. As far as I am concerned all forms of electronic speed detection should be banned and officers forced to leave their little roadside hideouts and actually patrol the roads. The CHP did not have radar until the 1990’s when some insurance companies started buying radar units for them (more customers getting tickets means the insurance companies could raise rates and make more money). They have gone from being a professional law enforcement agency that was actually out there patrolling the roads to a much lazier organization that hides in the shadows with a radar gun instead of earning their tickets the honest way. Take away the radar and the red light cameras and make cops go out and patrol.
Back in the 1990’s as in the same 90’s when the average speed on 395 was 85-90 mph?
I’ll gladly accept a little enforcement here and there to help keep the drivers at reasonable speeds.
Thanks for doing your job CHP.
Let them get out and patrol instead of sitting on the side of the road staring at a radar speed read out. CHP has become lazy.
Yes, technology can be a bitch sometimes.
The CHP uses it to enforce the law while you use to spew your paranoid anti-cop attitudes on the internet. Welcome to the party.
yes, speed traps are illegal…if they issue a citation based on a speed trap, the person receiving the citation will win in court, should they choose to fight it.
Not a surprise……I was thinking the very same thing,and which of those vehicles it was going to be when I heard of this accident….knew it was going to be one of them….or if it also involved some innocent driver or pedestrian….losing control of a vehicle at a high rate of speed,on a residentual street, and into a street lamp pole is better than running into a 10 year old walking home from Lo-Inyo school or a carload of people heading home from Carls Jr with their lunch,that’s for sure.
I was talking to my neighbor when this accident happened.My neighbor got his police scanner out and hearing of the area it happened at,we tried to decide who it might be…. A) the loud little black sports car that speeds through the Lone Pine streets daily…or B) the little light blue-grey sports car that speeds through the Lone Pine streets daily…..or C) the little red sports car that speeds through the Lone Pine streets daily.It turned out to be C….I’m glad it wasn’t earlier in the day when hospital employees or patients,or kids walking home from school were present.