Who’s to Blame for Pedestrian Deaths?

* I have been reading the “Perilous Paths” series with growing disgust. The latest article, “Pedestrian Deaths Reveal O.C.’s Car Culture Clash” (Nov. 28), was all too typical.

First there is the rush to excuse motorists for killing pedestrians, saying that speeding, running red lights and blowing through crosswalks makes drivers only “partly to blame,” since they are “unused to navigating areas with heavy pedestrian traffic.”

Boy, that just makes the heart bleed for those poor, disadvantaged motorists, doesn’t it?

Even more despicable is the blaming of the victim practiced by officials and police, who love to claim the pedestrians were jaywalking.

However, I notice the most horrific crash cited, which left two children motherless, occurred in an intersection crosswalk. The final outrage is the complete lack of justice for the victims.

Do any of the killers even receive a traffic citation, let alone license suspension, probation or jail time? Apparently it’s not an important enough issue to mention.

JUDY REDPATH

Huntington Beach

* I suppose since this is a Mexican immigrant issue, we should cast aside all attributes of common sense. The only tragedy here is that we have certain Santa Ana city officials who advocate the implementation of programs which propose to teach a certain segment of our society that jaywalking, playing in the street, crossing against a red light and other activities may result in tragedy.

Once again it appears the tax-paying citizens will be obligated to subsidize a program that will attempt to study a problem that could be alleviated by common sense.

Perhaps columnist Agustin Gurza can write an article in Spanish, warning the Mexican immigrant not to play in the streets, jaywalk or cross against red lights.

Also, even though the pedestrian has the right of way, the pedestrian should look in both directions before entering any crosswalk or intersection.

G. THOMAS CHIZEK

Huntington Beach

* Re “Absent Mayor Should Attend to Santa Ana’s Pedestrian Crisis,” Agustin Gurza’s column, Dec. 4: Where is Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, you ask?

Well, it is no secret that Pulido tends to hide whenever a controversial issue arises, especially if it involves Latino immigrants.

It is insipid and disrespectful to his constituency that Pulido has chosen to, once again, hide rather than address the obvious safety problem that has resulted in a high number of pedestrian deaths in Santa Ana.

Pulido has proven time and time again that he is, indeed, the establishment mayor by not taking any stand whatsoever on other pertinent issues that also involve the Latino community, such as Propositions 187, 209 and 227.

Where was Pulido during those countless anti-immigrant campaigns? Perhaps the mayor should put his engineering degree to good work by designing a few more crosswalks and installing any necessary additional traffic lights for his city.

CESAR MADRID

Orange

* Agustin Gurza, in his column about the absent mayor, is well within his right to demand more from the local government to help alleviate the critical problem with pedestrian accidents.

Gurza, however, goes after the mayor and other citizens of Santa Ana for reasons that appear to be racially motivated.

Gurza asserts that Mayor Miguel Pulido should do more to solve the pedestrian crisis because he is of the same race as the majority of the people being struck by automobiles in Santa Ana.

If black people were being hit disproportionately on Santa Ana streets, should not the mayor look after them as well?

Gurza targets the neighborhood of Floral Park for no other reason than many white people live there. Gurza also takes issue that Floral Park has traffic restrictions entering its streets.

However, many Santa Ana neighborhoods such as Washington Square, Santiago Park, French Park and Wilshire Square all have the same traffic restrictions, as well as many gated communities.

PAUL ANDERSON

Santa Ana