BILL ANALYSIS �
SCR 119
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 18, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
SCR 119 (Fuller) - As Amended: June 3, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 32-0
SUBJECT : CHP Officer Gerald N. Harris Memorial Interchange
SUMMARY : Designates an interchange in Kern County in honor of
fallen CHP Officer Gerald N. Harris. Specifically, this bill :
1)Designates the interchange at State Route (SR) 99 and
eastbound SR 58 in Kern County as the CHP Officer Gerald N.
Harris Memorial Interchange.
2)Requests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to
determine the cost for appropriate signs, which shall include
the star of the Department of the California Highway Patrol
(CHP), showing this special designation and, upon receiving
donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect
those signs.
EXISTING LAW : Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating
and maintaining state highways, including the installation and
maintenance of highway signs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown, but the measure requests that Caltrans
only erect the appropriate signage upon receiving donations from
nonstate sources covering the cost.
COMMENTS : This bill designates the interchange at SR 99 and
eastbound SR 58 in Kern County as the CHP Officer Gerald N.
Harris Memorial Interchange. Gerald Harris was born in
Bakersfield in 1938, graduated from North High School there in
1957, and then enlisted in the Marine Corps. After being
honorably discharged from the Marines in 1965, he graduated from
the CHP Academy in 1967. Officer Harris served all but one year
of his CHP career in the Bakersfield area and it was there in
February 1974, while directing traffic at an intersection, that
he was struck by a vehicle. He survived the accident with what
appeared to be non-life threatening injuries, but subsequently
died of an embolism after being flown to San Francisco for
special medical treatment. Officer Harris is survived by his
SCR 119
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wife Sherril and his daughter Holly, who was eight at the time
of his death on February 27, 1974.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association of Highway Patrolmen (sponsor)
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Anya Lawler / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093