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Published on 09/11/1995 All articles from this issue

Letters To The Editor

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A question on what 'hit and run' means

I am not familiar with the legal language of the "hit and run" law. However, as a driver, I do know that leaving the scene of an accident is unlawful. Failure to report the accident, and upon investigation, if the driver is founds guilty, is subject to a penalty according to the law.

On July 16, on DeVoto Street in Mountain View, we suffered the loss of a beloved member of the family. The driver did not stop, nor attempted, to find the owner of a beautiful, white Shih Tsu dog, left to die on the street. There were no witnesses because the neighborhood is usually very quiet. Any dog-lover will understand the pain and anger we feel because of this outrageous behavior.

Tsing was very special. He came to us as an abused, disoriented animal. After months of patient, loving care, he became a gentle, well-behaved, affectionate aristocrat, worthy of his lineage as a "royal temple dog."

Tsing was not street-wise. He was hit by a car driven by someone who should have been more alert.

Does the legal language of the hit-and-run law mention harm done to any life?

Our family still feels the pain from our loss of Tsing. I wonder if, in the small print of a document, there is room to include some penalty for harm done to those weaker than ourselves and justice of a small dog named Tsing.

Vange Peterson

Mountain View

Quote about police protection was not his

If Town Crier reporter Clyde Noel is going to be assigned serious community issues to report, he needs to adhere to a higher standard of accuracy. I never said or implied the so-called "quote" he has assigned to me in his Aug. 16 article on police protection in Los Altos Hills. His phrase which he attributes to me, "We're just struggling to find a way to make the service look better to the citizens," is his creation and trivializes a serious issue.

What I did tell him in our phone conversafion was that I had heard very little criticism of the Sheriff's department by Los Altos Hills residents, and that when we have looked at altemative services in the past we had found the costs to the Town to be significantly greater. Consequently, there did not appear to be cost savings or enough improvement in service to warrant a change at this time.

The subject of police protection is very important to any community and is certainly worthy of diligent research and accurate reporting.

Sid Hubbard

Los Altos Hills

Other aspects of mail thefts

Joanne Griffith Domingue's Aug. 16 piece titled "Thieves leaving their stamp on local mail" got me to thinking about several important aspects she didn't manage to cover.

• To what extent has check altering attributable to the rifling of residential mail boxers been verified in 94022?

• To what extent has check altering attributable to the rifling of blue collection boxes verified in 94022?

Has there been any investigation of the possibility that postal service personnel may themselves have rifled promising envelopes with check altering in mind? Finally, your reporter might have noted that checks on which the payee and the amount are imprinted by a laser printer are extremely difficult to alter.

Larry Johnson

Los Altos