March 24, 1993
Your story on traffic fine revenues in Kilbuck on Route 65 overlooked one very vital point.
You reported on the large amount of money raised through the fines, the “aggressive” police officers, the West Penn AAA and its involvement, the sour grapes from the culprits who were caught speeding and other complaints from transients. What you didn’t mention was that traffic deaths in the area have dropped dramatically as a result of the crackdown.
Several years ago, when the death toll had reached 22 or so in a span of five years, a popular bumper sticker displayed by the area’s motorists pleaded, “Pray For Me, I Drive Killer Route 65.”
The plea was more in truth than in jest, as the appalling carnage on Route 65 included the death of two newspaper delivery boys who were brothers on a quiet Sunday morning when their mother’s car was broadsided by a speeding drunken driver.
The killer is still in jail. But the kids are still dead.
I don’t care if Kilbuck collects a million dollars a day from speeders and drunk drivers. Better that every drunk driver and speeder in Allegheny County should go to jail or go bankrupt rather than one more innocent victim be murdered.
As your headline subtitle stated, “Laws are there to be enforced, say the police to critics.”
JACK O’NEIL
Sewickley