Drivers Concerned Over Delay in Nixle Alert Following Big Rig Crash
There’s concern over the time it took to alert drivers about the big rig crash on Interstate 10 Tuesday morning, that backed up traffic for hours.
A ‘Nixle’ alert, used by the city of Palm Springs and Riverside County to let people know about emergencies, wasn’t sent out for at least 3 hours.
“And then it was 45 minutes… an hour and I found our later it was 2 1/2 hours until we got a Nixle alert, that there was this major accident that had closed this road on the way to Los Angeles.”
David A. Lee lives in Palm Springs and makes his living as a writer and photographer. He often has to travel on the I-10 to Los Angeles for work. He feels the big rig crash on the freeway that closed all westbound lanes for hours called for an immediate Nixle notification.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people in the Coachella Valley and as a resident I want to know what’s going on a few miles away from my town on the major corridor,” Lee said.
The accident happened at 6:40 in the morning. After assessing the situation the California Highway Patrol says because it happened so close to Palm Springs – it let the police department just before 8:30 a.m.
“Well, us notifying Palm Springs is really is just a courtesy. We have plenty of venues that put that information out immediately,” said CHP Public Information Officer Mike Radford.
However, Lee says he didn’t get an alert until 9:15 a.m. “I just thought that it was really unacceptable,” he said.
“Once we received that information, then we determined that it could possibly impact traffic coming into the city and we took it upon ourselves to put out a Nixle notification out to the residents of Palm Springs as a courtesy,” said PSPD Spokesman Sergeant Harvey Reed.
He says because it happened outside of the city, the department isn’t required to put an alert out.
As for why the delay..
“It does take time to make a thorough and accurate assessment of what the situation is and the long term impact it will have on the traveling public and citizens of nearby cities,” Reed said.
“I don’t think that’s a valid explanation,” said Lee, reacting to the department’s response on the delay. He says some information is better than not putting out any information at all.
“And if there is an emergency, an earthquake, a terrorist attack, a wildfire… that we know immediately what’s going on, so that we can prepare for that,” Lee said.
People who want to receive alerts from the city or Riverside County, either via text or email, have to sign up for Nixle. For more information click here.
The California Highway Patrol also says there are a number of smartphone traffic applications a driver can use to keep up to date on traffic collisions, traffic hazards, and road closures.
“Theres really no way to let the commuter know that the roads going to be closed without them doing a little bit of research. If you plan on making a trip, its basically your responsibility to check one of those apps, whether it’s CHP Traffic, Sig Alert, 511, Google maps… to get that information and know if you’re going to have a safe smooth trip,” Officer Radford said.
