To the editor: Steve Lopez nailed it once more together with his article about reckless drivers and automotive violence. Individuals who velocity, drive underneath the affect or violate visitors legal guidelines, and subsequently kill or badly maim others, ought to pay the implications with jail time, stiff financial fines and being prevented from driving once more.
It’s no surprise that there are such a lot of hit and run accidents with deadly penalties, and, prior to now week alone, at the least one fiery crash with a number of fatalities when our legal guidelines are so lax. Lopez is totally appropriate that our legislators have to step up now to deal with this.
And whereas they’re at it, why not handle the problem of gun violence and deal with proudly owning weapons like proudly owning a automotive: require each licenses and coaching to acquire and preserve weapons, require insurance coverage to cowl damages and lack of life attributable to unlawful use of weapons, and require periodic gun security checks to maintain gun licenses?
Mary Carlson, Mission Viejo
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To the editor: The crash scene is only the start of the influence attributable to egocentric, drunk and/or careless drivers. For survivors, a hurricane of trauma follows that may embrace melancholy, hopelessness, anguish, loneliness and self-harm, which lead to hours of remedy (if you will get it) and drugs to get by the day. Subsequent could come job/enterprise loss, faculty struggles or dropping out, and retreating from social exercise.
The melancholy, grief and ache are lifelong. Survivors don’t heal from or overcome the trauma; they merely be taught to dwell with it. The holes of their hearts for the deceased won’t ever shut. However a drunk driver convicted of manslaughter can get six months and much much less heartache. Perhaps when a violent, lethal crash impacts sufficient legislators, they’ll make a giant stink about it.
Till then, survivors are left holding nothing however reminiscences and sorrow not just for their family members, however for the long run life they might have shared, and that could be a jail unto itself.
Cathleen Yates, Norco
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To the editor: Maybe automotive producers and their promoting ought to be held accountable for encouraging high-speed driving, since their TV adverts present their vehicles exceeding the velocity restrict and racing on metropolis streets. Somewhat than a “skilled driver on a closed course,” they need to present a “pupil driver on a crowded road.”
To scale back dashing and one of many causes of local weather warming, the federal authorities must also restrict a automotive’s horsepower and restrict MPG on each car, not simply the fleet common. Bettering fuel mileage reduces the quantity of gasoline wanted, which is able to assist decrease the price of gas on the pump. Electrical autos must also have velocity limiters to extend their vary and decrease the quantity of electrical energy wanted per mile.
Bruce A. Bailey, Pasadena
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To the editor: “Operating a purple gentle” is a typical phrase in accident stories in newspapers and on the radio. As a long-time driver, after I strategy a visitors sign that turns yellow, I sluggish and cease. I’ve noticed that I’m one of many few who do that. When most motorists strategy a sign that turns yellow, they step on the accelerator to hurry up and burst by the intersection.
What can we do to guard ourselves from such widespread rash conduct? I warning my kids that when ready at a purple gentle, don’t rush into the intersection when the sunshine turns inexperienced. Wait a second and look each methods to make sure that oncoming visitors has stopped.
Sure, one has to defend oneself from typical drivers. When slowing to a cease at a sign that turns yellow, look in your rear mirror to find out whether or not the automotive behind you can also be slowing — the driving force behind you may be accelerating. And ready a second after the sign turns inexperienced may get you some nasty honking from the automotive behind you, however as my father taught me, “don’t let the man behind you drive your automotive together with his horn.”
Martin A. Brower, Corona del Mar
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To the editor: Lopez’s article on the rise of willful harmful driving in Los Angeles highlights the shortage of adaptation and coverage modifications our leaders usually are not addressing. Visitors legal guidelines are being ignored and violated with impunity by drivers dashing, tailgating, working a purple gentle or cease signal or making unlawful U-turns.
Egocentric and reckless drivers drive on floor streets at freeway speeds. Some have interaction in road racing and unsafe takeovers of intersections. The place is the monitoring, the enforcement, the crackdown on unlawful driving behaviors that put so many lives in danger? And why is the assault on our neighborhoods, shattered by the noise of racing exhausts — constructed into manufacturing unit vehicles or bought on the aftermarket — allowed to proceed?
Sure, certainly, it’s time for compliance and, wanting that, confiscation of the “car weaponry” that too many select to inflict on others.
Alan Kishbaugh, Los Angeles
