‘Car Accidents Hold Us Captive’

SHELLEY HERMAN

Sound engineer, Los Angeles

Ijust watched yet another TV news story about a four-hour traffic jam. I’ve been stuck in similar situations many times.

A few months back, a friend of mine was on his way home on the 405 about 2 a.m. on his motorcycle. There was a fatal accident by the Wilshire Boulevard exit, and even after the police had cleared the cars, they stood at the scene investigating, not letting traffic go for nearly another hour. Imagine sitting on the freeway in the middle of the night on a motorcycle, along with thousands of people in their cars, with no way to get off. That sort of stuff happens all the time.

The police should get the cars cleared, make sure the roadway is free of debris and let the traffic get going. We pay for those freeways through our taxes and we shouldn’t have them tied up because some lawyer somewhere might demand an investigation. That’s what happens when an accident comes to court--and they always do. There’s going to be a lawyer saying, “Why didn’t you investigate that incident further?”

The only way to solve this problem is to pass legislation making clearing the freeway and getting traffic moving the primary mission of the police.

There is no organization to protect motorists from these awful jams. What we need is a grass-roots movement of some kind to get the Legislature to shape up on this issue. Maybe AAA could get behind it.

I’ve lived in L.A. for 68 years. No question about it: Traffic is escalating. A lot more people are coming here to live.