CHP Will Enforce Speeding Laws on MDs

Re “Drive to Let Doctors Speed Hits Yellow Light,” March 4: The California Highway Patrol’s angry reaction to the California Medical Assn.’s plan to sell stickers identifying members as doctors is hypocritical. Before beginning to ticket doctors trying to make their way through L.A.’s congestion, CHP officers should ticket their own peers who routinely get away with breaking the law through a feature called “courtesy between departments.” Pulled over for speeding? No problem. Just show your police badge. Even serious violations of the speed law are subject to this policy, with the exception of certain offenses, like drunk driving -- subject to the arresting officer’s judgment of what is “serious.”

There is no excuse for speeding on the way to the golf course. However, with traffic in L.A. the way it is, we should give every courtesy to overworked doctors trying to make it to the emergency room, even if they drive in the carpool lane or on the shoulder. That, or we can fix L.A.’s freeway traffic.

Ara Kassabian

Glendale

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Regarding allowing doctors to speed to medical emergencies: The first message you get when you call the doctor’s office nowadays is, “If this is an emergency, call 911.” If some people deserve a sticker to exempt them from speeding tickets, how about plumbers in their rush to fix an overflowing toilet? You get the idea.

Gary Rudnick

Palm Desert