BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  ACR 70
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   September 1, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
                               Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
                    ACR 70 (Smyth) - As Amended:  August 23, 2011
           
          SUBJECT  :  State Route 5

           SUMMARY  :  Designates a segment of State Route (SR) 5 as the 
          California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officers Gayle W. Wood, Jr. and 
          James E. McCabe Memorial Highway.  Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Recounts the lives and careers of Gayle Wood, Jr. and James 
            McCabe, two CHP officers who were killed in the line of duty.  


          2)Designates the segment of SR 5 between Palomas Wash Bridge 
            milepost marker 60.51 and Templin Highway milepost marker 
            65.97 in the County of Los Angeles as the CHP Officers Gayle 
            W. Wood, Jr. and James E. McCabe Memorial Highway.  

          3)Requests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to 
            determine the costs of erecting the appropriate signs, 
            consistent with the signing requirements for the state highway 
            system, showing this special designation, and upon receiving 
            donations from nonstate sources covering 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  :  Gayle Wesley Wood, Jr. was born in 1937 in Barstow, 
          California and graduated as the president of his class from the 
          CHP Academy in 1969.  After a year at the Santa Ana area office, 
          CHP Officer Wood was transferred to motorcycle duty in the South 
          Los Angeles Area before being transferred to the Van Nuys 
          Airport in 1973, where he spent the remainder of his career as a 
          helicopter pilot.  

          James Edward McCabe was born in 1944 in Los Angeles and served 
          as a helicopter pilot in the United States Army Air Operations 
          Division in Vietnam before graduating from the CHP Academy in 








                                                                  ACR 70
                                                                  Page  2

          1971.  While assigned to the West Los Angeles Area Office, CHP 
          Officer McCabe earned his emergency medical technician and 
          paramedic certificates, and was transferred between several 
          offices before his final assignment at the Van Nuys Airport.  

          While finishing an air patrol near Castaic Lake on September 1, 
          1978, Officer Wood and Officer McCabe were killed when their 
          helicopter was destroyed after striking a power line support 
          tower that was not visible in the darkness.  

          Both officers are remembered for their love of recreational 
          flying and spending time with their families, as well as the 
          dedication they both showed towards their jobs.  Officer Wood is 
          survived by his mother, brothers, wife, children, and 
          grandchildren, and Officer McCabe is survived by his siblings, 
          wife, stepdaughter, and grandchildren.  

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          California Association of Highway Patrolmen (sponsor)

           Opposition 
          
          None on file
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :   Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093