CHP South Lake Tahoe writes almost 200 tickets over the holiday weekend

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Just as with all other law enforcement agencies around Lake Tahoe, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was very busy over the 4th of July holiday. Between June 30 and July 4, the local officers wrote 93 moving citations and ticketed about the same for illegal and unsafe parking, many along SR89 at Emerald Bay.

On July 4 there was an hours-long line on SR89 of vehicles trying to get to the beaches for the holiday, stretching almost to the Y in South Lake Tahoe from Camp Richardson. At 8:30 a.m., bumper-to-bumper cars prevented thru traffic from moving. Once CHP was able to let the waiting cars know Pope Beach was full, traffic was free-flowing by about noon.

One CHP vehicle was even side-swiped as the officer was trying to clear traffic.

The majority of the parking violations were issued at Emerald Bay for parking in "no parking" zones or having parts of the car over the white line. In 2021 a group from CHP petitioned El Dorado County to have the fines raised on SR89. What was formerly $30-$40 is now $100. The thinking behind the raised fines was to be a deterrent to parking illegally, a plan that worked at Sand Harbor on SR28. In that area, the county was able to get the fines up to almost $300 which is what CHP South Lake Tahoe wanted, according to Officer Ruth Loehr.

Loehr said there were a lot of property damage crashes over the holiday period. One such case was on the morning of July 3 when a driver heading to South Lake Tahoe crashed near Camp Sacramento. The driver was already intoxicated and arrested.