Smokey in sky keeps watch

By Rebecca Cook

Associated Press

The report of a possible accident on I-5 crackles across state trooper Andy Stoeckle’s radio as the afternoon rush hour begins oozing through Seattle.

He rushes to the scene at about 160 mph – not as scary as it sounds, as he’s flying 1,000 feet above the roads in a single-engine Cessna 182.

As part of the state’s Metro Air Patrol, Stoeckle of Marysville tries to unsnarl traffic knots for those asphalt-bound commuters below. The program, modeled after one in California, has been so successful the State Patrol is expanding it in May.

Above south Seattle, Stoeckle spots the problem: not an accident, but a stalled car blocking two northbound lanes. As Stoeckle banks sharply to the left – turning in tight circles to avoid nearby Boeing Field air traffic – he sees two people trying to push the car to the shoulder.

“C’mon guys, put some energy behind it,” he urges the tiny figures below. As if the commuter gods are granting his wish, the car slowly rolls to the shoulder, and the traffic stacked up behind it starts flowing freely again.

Smokey Six, as Stoeckle is known in the air, calls dispatch and reports there’s no blocking accident anymore, just a stalled car on the shoulder. The troopers on the ground now know they don’t have to rush to the scene – mission accomplished for Stoeckle.

“We save the troopers time trying to drive all around the place looking for something,” he explains.

The Metro Air Patrol attacks Puget Sound congestion in two main ways: reporting accidents, stalls and other problems before dispatch hears about them, thus reducing response time; and letting dispatch know when a reported problem has already been cleared, saving wasted trips for troopers on the ground.

The Air Patrol can count on pretty good job security. The Texas Transportation Institute ranks the Seattle-Everett area as having the second- or third-worst traffic congestion in the nation, depending on how you measure it. Either way, it’s not a pretty picture. Congestion costs the average Seattle-area commuter 53 wasted hours each year.

Stoeckle battles that congestion every day himself, driving two hours each way from his Marysville home to Olympia and back. He said he turns up the radio and listens to 1970s music through the inevitable slowdowns and traffic backups.

The commute, which will end when he and his wife move to Olympia in May, would take about 35 minutes from the air, he said.

“If I had my own personal airplane, I would fly everywhere,” he said. “It’s much nicer up in the air.”

The psychological toll of traffic jams is obvious, even from 1,000 feet: “When you get a lot of traffic, people get impatient,” Stoeckle says.

State Patrol pilots traditionally concentrated on catching speeders. Metro Air Patrol started two years ago, after officials saw that lack of speed was the bigger problem on Puget Sound highways. Pilots concentrate on the Seattle area, but often fly north to Everett or south beyond Tacoma to check out traffic.

The pilots also help bust aggressive drivers and chase fleeing suspects.

Stoeckle once spotted a motorcyclist on I-405 weaving through traffic at more than 100 mph. Following Stoeckle’s directions, a trooper on the ground finally caught up with the motorcyclist. Stoeckle watched with satisfaction as the trooper pointed up toward his plane while talking to the speeder, prompting a swift confession.

The occasional car chase livens up their days, but everyday tasks of clearing stalled cars and fender-benders are Metro Air Patrol’s bread and butter.

Troopers on the ground take an average of 16 minutes to respond to accident scenes. The air patrol averages a three-minute response time.

In the past six months, pilots identified 112 lane-blocking incidents before they were reported. Lt. Tristan Atkins calculated that the Air Patrol reduced traffic back-ups by 81 hours because troopers were dispatched more quickly to clear the road.

Also in the past six months, pilots determined that 188 reported accidents no longer existed – freeing an estimated 41 hours for troopers on the ground to respond to actual problems.

The pilots fly with a flight officer, who helps spot accidents, writes reports, listens to the many radio channels they monitor, and watches for other air traffic – it gets pretty crowded up there sometimes. In May, the Air Patrol will hire a new flight officer, allowing the two pilots to increase flights to cover every afternoon rush hour and many mornings as well.

Only the Puget Sound area now has traffic bad enough to warrant the Air Patrol, but Atkins says the program could expand to Spokane if congestion worsens there.

On the Air Patrol’s wish list is a high-tech infrared camera that can take video at night and pick up details such as license plate numbers from the air. The Air Patrol could also use the cameras to send real-time traffic pictures to the dispatch center and even Department of Transportation Web sites, so dispatchers and commuters could see what’s happening anywhere on the road.

State officials are applying for grant money for the $500,000 cameras.

For now, State Patrol pilots will have to rely on their sharp eyes to pick out traffic problems. As Stoeckle glides above the stop-and-go mess, he sympathizes with commuters – one of them is his wife, who commutes from Marysville to Bellevue for a job she loves. She will soon start trekking from their new home in Olympia to Bellevue.

Stoeckle sighs: “I keep telling her, traffic’s a nightmare.”

Herald reporter Katherine Schiffner contributed to this report.