More than a week after Interstate 5 was shut down for eight hours near Del Mar when a man threatened to jump from an overpass, elected officials are continuing to press state agencies for answers about policies guiding long closures and how to improve the response. “A prolonged freeway shutdown is not just an inconvenience, it is dangerous,” State Sen. Catherine Blakespear said Tuesday, pointing to delays in access to emergency care as well as the disruption to families and livelihoods. At a news conference at a Sorrento Valley Park Ride near Interstate 5, she and colleagues said they also want clarification from Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol and local law enforcement, such as San Diego police, about how agencies coordinate during such incidents and to explore ways to better communicate directly with the public. “At this exact moment, we’re not calling for a specific response,” Blakespear said. “What we’re asking for is to understand the processes, to work better together, to call attention to the fact that it is a problem.” On Dec. 5, authorities closed I-5 at Del Mar Heights Road for roughly eight hours as crisis negotiators talked the man off the ledge of the bridge over the freeway, a main north-south artery. The closure congested surface streets, and many drivers said they were stuck for several hours with no one directing traffic. Blakespear is leading the charge to demand answers, sending a letter to the agencies late last week that also cited the closure Nov. 22 of I-5 north of Oceanside near Camp Pendleton, initiated after police chased a driver from Buena Park. The pursuit ended in gunfire by an officer, and the armed suspect hid in bushes on the center median. The freeway was closed for 14 hours. The letter, also signed by several other local lawmakers, also pointed to closures between 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 18 on I-5 through Camp Pendleton during a live-fire demonstration as part of the Marine Corps’ 250th birthday. The decision to close came the morning of the event, leaving drivers with no advance notice. Assemblymember Laurie Davies’ 74th District includes the stretch of I-5 from Laguna Niguel to Oceanside, which she noted has an ocean on one side and Camp Pendleton on the other, leaving no alternative route in the face of a shutdown. “The lack of communication is not just an operational issue, it’s also public safety, one that leaves commuters distraught,” she said. After the Del Mar closure, San Diego police acknowledged the trouble caused for motorists, but said they would respond the same way if such an incident happened again. San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava told reporters he understands the incidents behind closures “can be unpredictable, random in nature, rapidly changing and beyond the control of public safety, but we’re here to take a deep dive into what happened in recent emergency closures.” “Maybe there is a good process in place, and it just didn’t work,” he said. “That’s what we want to know.” Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, who represents the 77th District, said the San Diego-area delegation to the state Legislature plans to meet Jan. 9 with CHP, Caltrans and other officials, who initially had been expected to attend the news conference but did not. “This isn’t about inconvenience,” said Boerner, who said she had been stuck in the Del Mar traffic for three hours, and has been stuck in five freeway closures over the last year or so. She also said she had been in touch with the Sheriff’s Office regarding some sort of system to alert drivers when there is a closure. Sheriff’s officials did not immediately respond to a query about the system, which Boerner said was in the beta testing stage. “This isn’t something that is like a one-fix solution,” Boerner said. “Every incident is quite different. But what we know our constituents need is they need communication, and we need coordination.” ...read more read less