Flood dangers in the Coachella Valley and the fines that may follow

Crossing city barricades that are supposed to stop people from entering dangerous territory is disobeying the law.

"if they failed to obey that traffic control device was basically the road closed sign, they could be subject to a fine of close to $240, those fines are considered moving violations," says Lieutenant Gustavo Araiza from the Palm Springs Police Department. "So they could count as a point against your record. And in most cases, people see additional fines in the form of maybe their insurance going up.'

The police department has a penal code with fines and penalties for crossing barricades. The Palm Springs Fire Department is the department that conducts the rescue.

"It places the occupants at risk of injury or death and all first responders performing the rescue," says Captain Nathan Gunkel from Palm Springs Fire Department.

News channel 3 asked the Palm Springs Police Public Information officer, How many of the water rescue people were fined? In a text message response, a department representative says, "We checked, and of the four water rescues, there were no cites associated". We followed with, why weren't these people fined, is there a reason why they weren't fined? Lieutenant Araiza says in a text message, "I think, for the most part, it’s just been a priority shift. We’re rescuing the person becomes a priority over penalizing them."

Upon closer look at the calls, not all of the rescues were related to people not obeying signs," says Lieutenant Araiza. Three were prior to the road being closed, and the other was where someone decided to off-road and circumvent the close. In all four cases, it wouldn't have led to a citation."

"The police department dispatch center may have several responses. "

"When it comes to the violations, you know, during the last year, we had 28 citations related to running those signs, but in most cases is in order to like catch all the violators, we would have to post an officer there to monitor the location," says Lieutenant Araiza.

(Update 1/19/23) Indian Canyon Drive is open.