If you've ever been driving and saw one of the "patrolled by aircraft" signs and thought the signs were just a scare tactic to slow drivers down, think again. 

It's not a bird, it's a plane and most likely your next speeding ticket from the California Highway Patrol's friendly skies.

"It's not a bluff," said flight officer Chris Werner.

Two planes patrol state highways from LA county to San Jose county.   CHP officers say they write about 1,000 tickets per plane, per year, just from the eye in the sky.

Basically, it's a stopwatch that does it.

"Basically I use the aircraft to pace the vehicle for a one mile mark, and then I use the stopwatch to convert the aircraft speed to ground speed," said Werner.

Then the flight officer radios to a partol car on the ground.

"I bring the patrol officer up to the car say that is the vehicle to the left of you and then he'll position behind the vehicle, and I'll say 'you'r

Last night a power pole was damaged as a result of a DUI collision near Soquel Drive at Fairway Drive.

Power is still out in the area, and PG&E is on scene for repairs.

The traffic signal which controls Soquel Drive is inoperable because of the power outage. Motorists are still required to stop at this intersection per California Vehicle Code section 21457.

CHP currently has 3 officers on scene. 1 officer is issuing citations for motorists failing to stop at the stop sign, and two officers are directing traffic. Failure to stop at a controlled intersection is extremely dangerous to the public and the officers on scene. This is estimated to continue through the afternoon commute.

A: Phil from Seaside asked us, "almost every day I look in the sky and see planes that are leaving long trails of, well I don't know what, but possibly chemtrails? What are the planes spraying?"

Chief Meteorologist Norm Hoffmann has the answer.

I have answered questions similar to this one and so I will try and answer your question. First I must say that I come at this from a scientific background and I try and approach this logically and I have some 40 years of experience behind me.

With that said: there are hundreds of aircraft that fly over or near the Central Coast every day. The Salinas valley seems to be a corridor for the flight paths. I was Meteorologist-in-Charge for the National Weather Service I was also in charge for the National Weather Service Office in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Center in Freemont California.