Holiday Travel Crush Fails to Materialize : Expected Traffic Snarls Avoided at County’s Airport and Freeways

Thanksgiving holiday vacationers returning to Orange County found it was mostly smooth sailing, with a few exceptions, as expected snarls at John Wayne Airport and on local freeways failed to materialize.

Motorists who did get stuck in traffic jams in surrounding Southern California areas found cars and recreational vehicles moving at a steady clip of 55 m.p.h. once they crossed the Orange County line. The flight delays and baggage snafus experienced by many air travelers arriving at John Wayne Airport were blamed almost entirely on out-of-state weather conditions.

As the long four-day weekend wound to a close Sunday evening, California Highway Patrol dispatchers said the heaviest traffic was on the Riverside Freeway as it entered the county. But even there, vehicles were moving along at the maximum speed limit, they said.

And despite a travelers’ advisory for gusty winds in mountain areas, there were actually fewer than average accidents for a Sunday, CHP dispatcher Beth Amer said.

Death Toll Nearly Double

“I would have expected it to be a little rougher by now,” Amer said Sunday evening. “But it’s about an average Sunday . . . So either everybody’s complying real well with the laws and paying attention, or they decided to come home early. Or late.”

Statewide, the death toll for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday was nearly double for the same period last year, CHP officials said.

Between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Sunday, 41 motorists had died on state highways compared to 23 deaths for the same period in 1985. Of those, at least three of them occurred on Orange County roads, CHP officials said. CHP dispatcher Amer said two people were killed during a 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. Friday in the Capistrano Beach area, and neither victim was wearing seat belts.

CHP officers continued an aggressive holiday enforcement program targeting drunk drivers. The CHP made a total of 68 drunk-driving arrests in Orange County between Wednesday night and Saturday morning: 25 arrests on Wednesday; 13 on Thursday, and 30 on Friday. Comparable figures for the rest of the weekend were not available late Sunday.

Meanwhile, traffic entering John Wayne Airport slowed to a stop only intermittently Sunday afternoon. But by nightfall, cars backed up periodically onto the frontage road waiting to unload or pick up passengers at the curb in front of the terminal, and Orange County Sheriff’s deputies directed traffic with whistles and flashlights. But the parking lots had spaces to spare.

Wintry weather in Midwestern states caused what one airlines official said was the biggest problem of the day: passengers arriving long before their baggage.

“We’ve got luggage showing up late because of the foul weather,” said one Air Cal worker, pointing to a mountain of suitcases and duffel bags near the baggage carrousel.

Every flight arriving and departing from the airport was “loaded full,” he said, and “there’s no room at all for standbys.” But luggage delays “are our biggest problem. Denver had a terrible snowstorm today and its been a real headache.”

Lengthy Delay

The sun already had set when Beverly Bertelsen finally arrived at Gate 6, several hours after she boarded a plane in Montana and endured a lengthy delay in Salt Lake City, a delay mentioned by several grumbling passengers.

Bertelsen, who had gone to Montana to attend a wedding, said she bought an economy fare ticket on a “really packed flight,” found herself seated next to “a big guy,” and there was no food served.

Until her golden retriever, Ginger, and a friend met her at the arrival gate, Bertelsen said her last good moment had been in Montana, where, she said with a laugh, “There’s nobody there!”

By dusk, lines snaked around baggage check desks and people outside the airport restaurant and bar stood four and five deep watching planes take off toward the sea.

“It could be better,” bartender Steven Perry said of the day’s business. He laughed. “Wednesday (the get-away day for Thanksgiving travelers) was hell. This is so-so. . . .”

Plenty of the bar patrons were not holiday travelers, but business commuters who are accustomed to the usual crunch on Sundays, which, like Wednesday, is one of the airport’s busiest days.

People like Katherine and Jim Quayle of Las Vegas, both 21, who were married in their hometown Thanksgiving night and were returning there after a brief honeymoon in Laguna Beach, were unruffled by the minor irritations of a packed airport on a busy holiday weekend.

“We checked in a lot with the airlines,” Katherine Quayle said with a shrug. “We knew it would be pretty tough because it’s Thanksgiving weekend. We made our reservations in July.”

One man, who sat with his motor idling for several minutes before he finally snagged a parking spot for his white Mercedes at the passenger loading zone, hadn’t lost his sense of humor either. Hollering at two departing passengers he let off at the curb, he said, “Watch out for the plane with the hair under the wings.”