Questions and Answers About Your Commute : Paying Fines Frees Offender to Do It Again

Dear Traffic Talk:

In the northwest Valley, every weekend a traffic hazard is placed on the northwest corner of Rinaldi Street and Shoshone Avenue. It is a large sign, advertising new homes, on a low trailer.

The sign makes it impossible for southbound drivers on Shoshone who want to make a left turn onto Rinaldi to see oncoming Rinaldi traffic. Despite repeated complaints to the Valley Parking Enforcement Bureau and the issuance of numerous citations, the sign is wheeled out every weekend with seemingly no regard for the safety of local drivers.

Is there any lawful recourse to remove this barrier to the view of oncoming traffic?

John R. Curry

Granada Hills

Dear John:

Darryl Roberson, area supervisor of the Valley Parking Enforcement Bureau, said his office has ticketed that trailer 14 times in the past seven months. You will be happy to know that the bureau plans to impound the trailer this weekend, based on the fact that the trailer’s owner--a Canoga Park sign company--never paid a ticket and additional penalties that it received in August.

However, once the company gets the trailer out of impoundment, it can put it on that corner without fear of being towed away in the future--as long as it pays its tickets.

Dear Traffic Talk:

Recently, I saw a pedestrian who was forced to jump out of the path of a speeding car to avoid being hit. The pedestrian was walking south in a painted crosswalk. The left and center lanes of eastbound traffic had stopped.

The pedestrian had checked the right lane for oncoming cars, but before he could completely cross the final lane, a driver came up behind the stopped traffic, moved into the right lane and sped through the intersection. He just missed the man on foot.

I was able to get the license number and can identify the driver. If I can find the pedestrian and am willing to appear in court, can anything be done to put this driver one point closer to license suspension?

Anybody who doesn’t have enough foresight to realize why traffic might be stopped at an intersection and proceed with caution is a significant hazard to others.

Rhonda Levine

Burbank

Dear Rhonda:

Although your willingness to set things right is admirable, unfortunately the law does not allow for you to do anything with your information. The reason, according to Lt. Charles Kunz, officer in charge of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Traffic Coordination Section, is twofold.

The violation that you describe would be an infraction, a lesser crime than a misdemeanor, and for such crimes, only a police officer who has seen the violation occur can cite the offender.

People can make a citizen’s arrest only for a misdemeanor or a more serious crime. That’s because there is risk involved in citizen’s arrests, and lawmakers want people to take that risk only for substantial crimes, Kunz said. Also, legislators don’t want to create a situation in which large numbers of people would try to nail others for petty violations.

Traffic Talk appears Fridays in The Times Valley Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic in the Valley. Please write to Traffic Talk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted. To record your comments, call (818) 772-3303. Fax letters to (818) 772-3385.