Letters: Preventable fatal crashes are not mere accidents

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Preventable crashes are not mere ‘accidents’

Re: “3 dead, 6 hurt after 92-year-old driver hits bicyclist and crashes into California grocery store” (Feb. 6).

Another day in California, another fatal “accident” taking the lives of innocent Californians whose only misfortune was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This latest incident of driver negligence occurred in Westwood, in Los Angeles, on Feb. 5. The crash is strikingly similar to the one in Burlingame last summer, where a 19-year-old motorist killed 4-year-old Ayden Fang and sent a 6-year-old girl standing beside him on the sidewalk outside a downtown restaurant to Stanford Hospital.

Like the Burlingame crash, the Westwood incident was preceded by the driver, this one a senior, colliding with a cyclist. The Westwood vehicle then then plowed into a supermarket storefront, killing three shoppers and sending four to the hospital.

The LAPD called the crash “an unfortunate accident,” similar to how the San Mateo County District Attorney treated Ayden’s death.  Can we stop calling these preventable crashes “accidents”?

Irvin Dawid
Burlingame

Unplugging plate readers saves privacy

Re: “Police unplug plate-reader system” (Page B1, Feb. 4).

I commend the Mountain View police for turning off their Flock cameras. I hope the city decides to keep them off. The constitutional rights of law-abiding residents are paramount.

Maybe the AI-enabled cameras do help solve some crimes, but at what cost? If my car is stolen, I’d rather get a new car than risk my neighbors being disappeared by the Trump administration’s ICE thugs.

Caroline Rupp
Santa Cruz

Instead of wealth tax, bring back estate tax

Re: “Wealth tax is a money grab by another name” (Page A6, Feb. 4).

If we are still discussing the wealth tax, I somewhat agree with Kenneth Imboden’s letter.

A wealth tax does seem pretty extreme. I would much prefer to have a large tax on inheritance above $100 million. People who had the skill, talent, luck, criminality or whatever to get rich don’t need to turn their children into “trust fund babies.” We don’t need them to create a dynasty.

California eliminated the estate tax in 2005. Let’s bring it back.

Cliff Gold
Fremont

Epstein, Trump share an unsavory trait

There’s a common trait in both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump in the way they treat those close to them. Both solicit, then abuse and eventually humiliate their associates. One uses young girls, the other uses adults.

We know Epstein sought young girls looking for a break, then subjugated them. What Trump does can be seen in his Cabinet circus and his spokesperson. He looks for those sufficiently eager for power to ensure loyalty and gratitude. Once given the power position, he extracts the obligation of obnoxious praise. Both use power to solicit, then subjugate, then humiliate.

Witness Scott Bessent’s descent into Trumpist delusions. Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem and Karoline Leavitt become cartoon characters that will humiliate them in later life. Aids of Trump 45 worked very hard to rehabilitate their reputations. Both Epstein and Trump are disgusting examples of adulthood. One is still president.

Allen Price
Half Moon Bay

Retiring Republicans can weaken Trump

It’s still a long time until the midterm elections. That is when the Democrats are expected to take back the House.

During this period, even more horrific events will probably happen. The GOP-MAGA representatives who have opted not to run might be a sort of Trojan horse for dismantling Donald Trump’s tyranny. By doing so, they have nothing to lose.

This inside tactic needs to be deployed, and soon.

Rita Norton
Los Gatos

US should not fund socialist Cuba

I was shocked to learn we’ve been sending money to Cuba.

Cuba sent soldiers to Vietnam during the war to torture and interrogate American POWs.

Let them enjoy their socialist paradise, and when they get the moxie to overthrow the thugs and gangsters running their country, then support and bring them prosperity.

John Schroeder
San Jose