BILL ANALYSIS
ACR 175
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
ACR 175 (Anderson) - As Introduced: June 15, 2010
SUBJECT : State Route 52
SUMMARY : Designates a bridge on State Route (SR) 52 as the
Deputy Sheriff Kenneth James Collier Memorial Bridge.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Recounts the life and career of Kenneth James Collier, a
deputy sheriff with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department,
who lost his life in the line of duty.
2)Designates the Oak Canyon Bridge on SR 52 in Santee, located
between Post Mile 11.662 and Post Mile 11.799, as the Deputy
Sheriff Kenneth James Collier Memorial Bridge.
3)Requests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to
determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the
signing requirements for the state highway system showing this
special designation and, upon receiving donations from
nonstate sources sufficient to cover the cost, to erect those
signs.
EXISTING LAW : Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating
and maintaining state highways. This includes the installation
and maintenance of highway signs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Kenneth James Collier attended Grossmont College and
California State University, San Diego, where he majored in
administration of justice, and he first became intrigued with a
career in law enforcement through conversations with deputies
coming to and going from the Santee Sheriff's station near where
he worked. He began his law enforcement career with the San
Diego County Marshal's Office in 1997, working as a field
service officer and later a court service officer. In 2000, the
marshal's office merged with the San Diego County Sheriff's
Department, where Ken Collier continued on as a court service
officer. In August 2001, he was hired as a Detention Court
deputy sheriff and continued to serve in detention facilities,
ACR 175
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the Detentions Training Unit, and the Court Services Bureau. In
July 2006, Ken Collier was hired as a law enforcement deputy
sheriff and joined the Santee station in September 2006.
Deputy Collier was killed in the line of duty, at 39 years of
age, in the early morning hours of February 28, 2010. Shortly
after 3:00 a.m., Deputy Collier and his ride-along sheriff's
dispatcher, Ryan Debellis, came upon a driver heading eastbound
in the westbound lanes of SR 52 in the City of Santee. Deputy
Collier advised dispatch and attempted to overtake the wrong-way
driver by driving his patrol vehicle in the center median
shoulder when it struck a bridge abutment. After rolling
several hundred feet, Deputy Collier was ejected into a ravine
that Mr. Debellis also managed to reach moments before the
patrol vehicle burst into flames. Despite the valiant efforts
of fellow deputies and officers from all over the county,
emergency medical responders, and hospital personnel, Deputy
Collier succumbed to his injuries. Mr. Debellis is expected to
make a full recovery. The fact that a suspect was arrested and
will be charged is of little consolation for the tragic loss of
Deputy Collier to his loved ones, friends, colleagues, and the
community he served.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093