Pedestrian Deaths and the Race Card

The Times has once again displayed an ability to play the race card like Heifetz played the violin--often and to perfection. I refer to your report on pedestrian deaths in Los Angeles County (“Inequities in Pedestrian Deaths,” Aug. 19), where a bar graph of the victims’ race is prominently displayed along with a map pinpointing the accident locations. As a casual observer, I would suspect that a victim’s age might be a more important determining characteristic in the study of pedestrian fatalities, to say nothing of factors such as time of day, month or season of the year, traffic counts at the accident location, type of motor vehicles involved, etc.

As a longtime reader, I have come to the conclusion that Times staffers and editors are firmly convinced that race is the determining characteristic of every single element of the human condition. Please, for once, give us all a pass on the race card. I think we’ve all been dealt one too many hands from the bottom of that deck.

James DeBeau

Irvine

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When I learned how to drive in New York, I was taught that the motorist is always at fault in a vehicle-pedestrian accident. It is shocking to me that a careless commuter can kill a 77-year-old Army veteran in a crosswalk and not get cited, much less keep his license.

Do our laws really imply that a man’s life is less important than getting to work on time? Instead of handing out jaywalking tickets, perhaps Los Angeles County should begin to cite the motorists who endanger others on city streets.

Caroline O’Meara

Santa Monica