Sheriff's captain outlines crash trends in Laguna Woods, highlights motor-deputy enforcement and a small state grant

Captain Cruz Alday of the Orange County Sheriff's Department briefed the Laguna Woods City Council on recent traffic collisions and the department's strategy for reducing dangerous driving on the city's busiest corridors.

Alday said the sheriff's office distinguishes non-injury collisions (property damage) from injury collisions and that the department recorded a fatality in both 2022 and 2023. "We will respond to traffic collisions and any criminal activity," he said, adding that when an incident causes injury the department files a police report; for private-property mishaps officers often facilitate the exchange of information.

The captain described stepped-up enforcement using motor deputies, which allow officers to better observe speed and equipment violations than patrol vehicles. "In 2022... our deputies issued 265 citations" and in 2023 "we issued over 257 citations," he said, noting the main enforcement focus has been speed and hand-held-device violations on major thoroughfares such as Moulton Parkway and El Toro Road. Alday also said his office received a $4,000 selective traffic enforcement grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety for fiscal year 2023'24 to support distracted-driving, motorcycle and pedestrian-safety operations.

Council members pressed for detail on two crashes that damaged city fencing and on signal timing that can produce short yellow phases after vehicle preemption by emergency equipment. Alday explained vehicle preemption delays the traffic signal's reset time and can lead to abbreviated greens or shorter yellows as the controller returns to normal timing.

Council members and residents raised safety questions about e-bikes and golf carts used inside Laguna Woods Village. Juanita Skillman, chair of the Security Community Access Committee, described confusion over which devices must be registered and said the committee is working to register electric bicycles and other motorized devices inside the private community. Alday said neighboring cities experienced more e-bike problems, and that the sheriff's approach so far emphasizes education for riders and parents as well as enforcement when a device is classified and operated as a motor vehicle.

On a recent crash that injured a golf-cart occupant, Alday said deputies took a report and the matter is under investigation; he cautioned the council not to assume a single party was at fault while the investigation remains open. The council voted to "receive and file" the captain's report.