OLYMPICS 2004 AND CALIFORNIA'S GIFT FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY
The Commissioner of
Highway Patrol (CHP) State of California, Mr. Dwight Helmick with a letter on
March 16th 2004, to the new Minister of
Public Order in Greece, Mr. George Voulgarakis, has offered the free of
charge, advanced postgraduate training of Greek Highway Patrol Officers, at the
famous CHP Academy of California.
In his letter Mr. Helmick,
a known Philhellene, describes the following:
"Recently, Dr.
Michael C. Geokas,(Em) Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry at the
University of California, Davis, and president of the Demokritos society of
America, contacted me about assisting the Greek Government in maximizing
traffic safety and management during the upcoming 2004 Summer Olympic Games in
Athens. Specifically, he proposed that
a group of Greek highway patrol officers attend some advanced training courses
at the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Academy to enhance their skills in
traffic management and safety and apply these lessons in the operational plans
developed to handle transportation concerns during the games. The CHP and I
would be pleased and honored to host officers from Greece and provide them with
this important training.”
“If you are interested in
pursuing this arrangement, it would be helpful for our Academy instructors to
know what specific areas of instruction your officers would find most
helpful. The CHP has experience with
developing and implementing broad-based traffic management plans, having been
intimately involved with the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. We also have experience with dignitary
protection, and since the September 11th terrorist attacks, also with homeland
security issues. California's current
budget crisis and its impact on departmental operations require that all
expenses for travel, lodging, and meals be covered by your government. There would be no cost, however, for use of
our Academy facilities by your personnel.
As the 2004 Summer Olympic Games make this historic return to their
birthplace, the CHP is honored to be considered worthy of assisting you in this
massive planning effort. I am confident
your attention to detail and to the safety of the athletes, spectators, and the
many venues throughout Athens will result in world-wide applause for Greece and
its citizens."
THE VALUE OF THIS OFFER:
The value of Mr. Helmick's offer is substantial for the new Government of
Greece, due to the fact that the advanced training of Greek Highway Patrol
Officers will be extremely beneficial.
The association with the CHP will be doubly helpful, for augmenting
traffic safety, during the Olympics and for the next four years as well. California traffic safety experts emphasize,
that the multitude of Athletes, Spectators and members of international Media
outlets will not necessarily remain within the confines of the Attika basin,
for the entire period of the games.
They instead, will venture towards the countryside of Greece (The Mecca
of Tourism) for visiting famous places such as: Acro-Corinthos, Epidaurus,
Olympia, Delphi, Dion, Vergina, Crete and others Islands, which means their
extensive use of the traffic-network in Greece, with all the well known dangers
associate with such endeavor. Traffic
accidents with dead and injured and the instant transmission of the bad news,
to all corners of the planet, will be unavoidable.
Even the advanced
re-training of a few groups of Greek Highway Patrol Officers at this point in
time, will be invaluable, followed by a four year systematic training of
substantial numbers of them, which will be beneficial towards a drastic reduction of the number of victims
of the "asphalt genocide." The
post-graduate training will include both tutorial, and practical, hands on
experience, in traffic management and safety and in handling and safe disposal
of Chemical, Biological and Radioactive materials, which are of course related
to anti-terrorism training. The CHP has
a special Unit (The Bioterrorism Hazardous Material Unit) that will be
responsible for such specialized training.
THE CHP ACADEMY:
California with a population of 35,000,000, a size threefold larger than
Greece, with 22,000,000 vehicles of all types and a huge road-network to boot,
is blessed with the best CHP and CHP Academy in America. Specifically, the Academy, which resembles a
Military College, has extensive facilities and sizable personnel and has
already trained members of the Highway Patrol of other nations.
CONCLUSION: This offer
from Commissioner Helmick, represents a God-send low cost opportunity for
educational and technical upgrading and modernization of Greek Highway Patrol,
first for the Olympics and subsequently for the four years to come. As the first step the Chief of Highway
Patrol of Greece or his designee should come to California for developing the
specific training program, in cooperation with the Officials of the CHP Academy
and then the trainees could come shortly after that. In effect, with his letter
to the Minister of Public Order, Mr. George Voulgarakis, the Highway Patrol
Commissioner has placed the CHP Academy at the disposal of the new Greek
Government, which is by itself an unprecedented event. The underlying small secret is, that in
Northern California there is a thriving Greek-American community of about
80,000 people, with considerable influence on the affairs of our community at
large. The Think-Tank of our Society in
close cooperation with the Omogenia, within the Sacramento and San Francisco areas,
will do its best for the success of the proposed training program for the Greek
Highway Patrol Officers, due to our strong determination in reducing the number
of victims on the asphalt of Greece.
Finally, I urge the good Minister of Public Order in Greece (An
Economist with a Ph.D. degree from the University of Athens) to quickly accept
the generous and timely offer of the Philhellene CHP Commissioner, for the good
of the people of Greece and their most precious guests, at the Olympics 2004,
and beyond.
4-5-2004
Michael C. Geokas, M.D.,
M.Sc., Ph.D.
(Em) Professor of Medicine
and Biological
Chemistry, UC, Davis
School of Medicine,
SCIENCE ADVISOR TO THE CHP
COMMISSIONER
PRESIDENT, DEMOKRITOS
SOCIETY OF AMERICA
THINK-TANK, devoted to
issue of Hellenism.