Police hassling Seniors...

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Autolycus

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http://www.dailynews.com/ci_3692441
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Article Launched: 04/10/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT

Officer cites 82-year-old woman for being too slow to negotiate busy street
Dana Bartholomew, Staff writer



SUNLAND

Mayvis Coyle, 82, was shuffling with her cane across busy Foothill Boulevard while a traffic police officer watched and waited.

And watched and waited.

Even before Coyle finished crossing the intersection at Woodward Avenue, he had scribbled a $114 ticket for crossing against a don't-walk signal. "I entered the crosswalk, it was green," said Coyle, of Sunland, who is fighting the infraction issued Feb. 15. "It turned red before I could get over. There he was, waiting, the motorcycle cop.

"He said, `You're obstructing the flow of traffic."'

Coyle and other seniors at Monte Vista Mobile Estates are up in arms over signals they say are too short to safely cross the five-lane boulevard.

They say signals turn red before they can reach the opposite curb on Sunland-Tujunga's busiest thoroughfare. They risk their lives each time they enter the crosswalk, they insist. At least one resident calls a cab just to cross the street.

"I can go halfway, then the light changes," said Edith Krause, 78, who uses an electric cart because she has difficulty walking. "I try my darndest to get to the other side without being killed."

So many seniors have complained about hasty intersections that Councilwoman Wendy Greuel asked transportation officials last week to study how to accommodate them.

The standard speed used for timing pedestrians is 4 feet per second.

The Coyle incident "has brought to bear an issue that is relatively common," Greuel said. "We should look at those areas with predominantly seniors and accommodate their needs in intersections."

The danger to pedestrians - particularly senior citizens - is acute, Los Angeles police say. Of the 94 pedestrians killed in the San Fernando Valley from 2003-05 while crossing the street, 31 were seniors.

Sgt. Mike Zaboski of the Valley Traffic Division said he couldn't comment on Coyle's ticket, that it was her word against the officer who cited her - identified only as Officer Kelly - as to whether she entered the crosswalk on the green.

"Right now, pedestrian accidents are above normal," he said Friday. "We're looking out for pedestrians - people who think they have carte blanche in crossing the street.

"I'd rather not have angry pedestrians," he said of those like Coyle. "But I'd rather have them be alive."

"It's a safety concern," added Jerry Baik, an assistant supervisor of trials for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, whose office prosecutes traffic infractions like Coyle's.

"It's the officer's observation ... that she was acting in a dangerous way to herself as well as oncoming traffic."

Others besides Coyle, however, say signals on Foothill prompt a foot race to the other side.

On Friday, students ran - not walked - to make the lights, measured at 20 seconds from green to red.

"It sucks," said Sara Johnson, 14, of Sunland, who had just scampered with friends across the crosswalk at Woodward. "When the light turns red, you can't cross the street."

Chung Kim, manager of Jimmie Dean's Charbroiled Burgers at Foothill and Woodward, has seen close calls.

"Very hard to cross," he said, watching the intersection from his grill, "because signal's too short, the cars go so fast, every car over 45 miles per hour. It's crazy."

Coyle, a Cherokee medicine woman who splits her time between Sunland and the mountains above Sedalia, Colo., has done everything to fight her ticket, including send letters to Greuel's office.

The octogenarian, who has no phone or car, said she was simply hefting her groceries home when she not only got trapped in a busy intersection but got a ticket from a cop to boot.

"I think it's completely outrageous," said Coyle, wearing an Indian feather cap and homemade rock pendant. "I can't walk without a stick and I lose my balance.

"He treated me like a 6-year-old, like I don't know what I'm doing. I'm in shock that somebody's going to stop me on a green light while crossing the street."

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Perhaps they should cut the elderly and infirm a break? It makes me wonder where this officers discretion was: her ticket quota or her powertrip?
 
"They say the department is cracking down on wayward pedestrians because an increasing number of them are being killed by cars."

yeah, don't go after the people hitting the pedestrians or anything.
 
Sounds inflammatory

There are two sides to this story, why should we assume that hers is right? I imagine most officers are to busy to bother ticketing an old lady unless she was actually causing a problem (and believe me I don't think much of most officers). According to the officer the women crossed on red. Occams razor might side with the officer. Just sayin...
 
She says she entered the crosswalk with the WALK the cop says she entered when it said DON'T WALK

If the latter is true then she totally deserved the ticket.

If she entered the crosswalk on a "stale" WALK then, since she knows how slow she is, deserved the ticket.

Pedestrians have no right to hold up traffic. I am tired of having to wait for some slow as glass ped who could not care less about the drivers they are delaying.

I do make allowances for people who are slow IF they start walking as soon as the sign says WALK but for them to show up well into the cycle and then start across, that is just rude and I don't care how old or crippled you are if you neglegently or malicously hold up traffic you should get a fine.
 
Seasoned citizens should be cut some slack. It could have been my mom out there! Remember we all hope to become seasoned citizens. I'll awit till they cross thank you! It may be me some day.;) :)
 
Warren, last I check, California has pedestrian right of way laws.

A pedestrian steps off the curb, the responsibility is on your shoulders to stop and not plow over them.

If she was actually jaywalking, then a ticket may be deserved.

Since its her word against the cop's...well...I think we know how this will end up.
Revenue collection is very important.
 
It's not like I run over people. I just want some consideration.


My ire is not soley directed at seniors and cripples but at slacker kids, moms who cannot control their brood while they cross, hippies, and people on cell phones who cannot seem to walk and talk at the same time.


I wish there was a way to charge people for the time they cost me. I would gain little from any given person but a chronic rude person would find themselves out quite a sum in a short time thus giving them an incentive to be considerate.
 
Pedestrians have no right to hold up traffic. I am tired of having to wait for some slow as glass ped who could not care less about the drivers they are delaying.

I do make allowances for people who are slow IF they start walking as soon as the sign says WALK but for them to show up well into the cycle and then start across, that is just rude and I don't care how old or crippled you are if you neglegently or malicously hold up traffic you should get a fine.
Click to expand...

If being polite was convenient, women wouldn't make a such a big deal out of meeting polite Men.

A Man or Woman does not direct their anger at old ladies who jay walk. How we treat those that are weaker than us is what makes us decent people or animals.
 
My ire is not soley directed at seniors and cripples but at slacker kids, moms who cannot control their brood while they cross, hippies, and people on cell phones who cannot seem to walk and talk at the same time.
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Hippies? There are still hippies where you live? And they have trouble reading the Walk/Don't Walk lights too? Anyway, I guess I need to get downtown more often ... but I never begrudge the pedestrians for making me wait another twenty or forty seconds or so at the stoplights ...

If you're in that much of a hurry that you begrudge the folks crossing the streets, and you know where this typically happens during your commute ... perhaps you simply need to leave a few minutes earlier.

Back on topic: there are, in fact two sides to every story. My mother in law (a feisty, ornery 83-year-old if ever there was one) doesn't ever pay attention to traffic signals, either as a pedestrian, or while driving ... she is overdue for causing a serious accident someday soon, especially when she decides to dash across the street into oncoming traffic heedless of the signals. So if, in the judgement of the officer involved, he felt a ticket was due, maybe, just maybe, one was due. I really can't believe there's a lot of traffic cops out there who take delight in writing jaywalking tickets to senior citizens. Even in California.
 
im a LEO and in my opinion this is not really cop bashing. to write an old granny a ticket for crossing the street isn't exactly writing a ticket in the "spirit of the law."

ive stopped traffic to let a house pet get across the street. i'd like to think a human would get the same courtesy. :)
 
The silence of most of the LEO's on the board is pretty deafening. By their unwillingness to condem the ticketing officer it can only be surmised that they believe the old lady deserved it.
 
A better story would have been: "Elderly woman helped across street by kindly policeman." :)

But hey, the local gov't made $114!
 
few things annoy me as much as some idiot jumping out infront of my car (in parking lots esspecialy) because they technicly have the right of way. Just cause you can doesn't make it a good idea. This is a road, there are things with a few tons on you moving fast, you might wanna wait for the all clear rahter then just jumping out cause some overpaid idiot voted to give you the total right of way.

Now that that is said....this cop deserves to get smacked. A little old lady is crossing the street, and started crossing when she was supposed to, if it is an area heavy in elderly folks adjust the light timers properly. Cops should help little old ladies cross the street, not ticket them. I hope some boy scout walks up and kicks him in the nuts.
 
brerrabbit,

The silence of most of the LEO's on the board is pretty deafening. By their unwillingness to condem the ticketing officer it can only be surmised that they believe the old lady deserved it.
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IF you ever do something really stupid or get in trouble should we condemn you on the basis of a news article?

That point made, I wouldn't have written that ticket although if the woman had crossed against the light, she might have spent about 5 minutes thinking she was going to get a ticket.....

There is another possibility here. Often a police administrator will take away an officer's discretion and order all observed infractions of a certain type to be written. That kind of campaign is often for just that type of violation.

Dept I used to work for put out an order one summer that we were to ticket all the bicyclists who were riding after dark without lights and reflectors. I don't remember if it was the mayor or a city councilperson who had a close call and almost hit one, but the order came down. You see a kid out after dark without a light and reflector on his bike, you are to write him. None of the officers liked it. Everyone complained to the chief, but apparently he had his orders from the city manager. At first we pretended we didn't see the kids, then city hall called to see how many tickets were written. Then the pressure was put on. One of the older officers hit on a solution. He patrolled in the nicer neighborhood and wrote a couple tickets to the kids of the, how should I put it, higher social strata. The next day, the no discretion rule about bicycle lights was lifted....Funny how that works sometimes.....

Jeff
 
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