7 Killed in Freeway Crash

While I have sympathy for the grief of family and friends for a loved one’s death, “A ‘Family’ Lost” (July 4) about the seven taggers killed in the car accident on the freeway paints a picture of heroes and their families. I understand that death is very sad, but the fact remains that all of these youths were criminals who worked daily to deface our freeways. Should we applaud that? Your writer even has an explanation for the fact that there were spray paint cans near the scene of the accident, and to say that they had a “passion for the illegal practice of defacing freeway overpasses” is just as absurd as saying a bank robber has a passion for money. It angers me that so much newspaper space and compassion are devoted to a group of taggers, of criminals, while innocent, hard-working people die unnoticed every day.

JENNIFER C. COWHERD

South Pasadena

* I am disappointed that your coverage of the graffiti taggers who were killed in a traffic accident seemed to glorify them and treat as art the crime that endangers motorists and costs taxpayers and property owners hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to eradicate.

CARL MORRISON

Fallbrook

* Seven young men and women in an instant lost their lives to a drunk driver. These kids were not unlike us when we were their age, out exploring the world! My daughter could have been in that truck, or maybe your son? They were innocent. The press painted them as “taggers,” the impression given to many readers was that they were just a bunch of gangbanging Mexicans. The fact is we lost seven kids and that loss will create a vacuum in the lives of family and friends.

JOE R. CHAVEZ

Hacienda Heights

* It was a tragedy that should never have happened. Returning on the Long Beach Freeway from an evening at the beach, a pickup truck full of teen-agers gets hit by a drunk driver and pushed over the concrete barrier of the elevated freeway. Ejected from the bed of the truck, seven teen-agers fall screaming to their deaths in the Union Pacific train yard.

As reported by The Times (“Accident Kills 7 Passengers in Bed of Pickup,” July 3), this might have been avoided if Gov. Pete Wilson had signed a bill which the Legislature passed in 1991 to outlaw carrying passengers in the bed of a pickup. By what logic do we require those in the cab to wear seat belts while allowing those in the truck bed to be dangerously exposed?

In agricultural areas it’s common to see workers transported in the beds of pickups. When will Wilson cease protecting the interests of his agricultural supporters at the expense of our children’s safety and welfare?

EUGENE MULLALY

San Diego

* In the July 4 story about the deaths of those “taggers,” and the remark by Oscar Perez about God “punishing” those people, I have to tell Perez what God just told me. God said, “I didn’t punish anyone. I don’t protect people from their own stupidity; I don’t even protect people from other people’s stupidities. I don’t like vandalism, either. Take responsibility for your own actions, and you won’t be looking to blame others for your misfortunes.”

NOEL DWIGHT HARMAN

Redondo Beach