An 82-year-old woman has received a $114 ticket for taking too long to cross a street

LOS ANGELES -- An 82-year-old woman has received a $114 ticket for taking too long to cross a street in the San Fernando Valley, Calif.

Mayvis Coyle said she began shuffling with her cane when the light was green, but was unable to make it to the other side before it turned red.

"It turned red before I could get over. There he was, waiting, the motorcycle cop," Coyle told the Los Angeles Daily News. "He said, `You're obstructing the flow of traffic."'



Coyle is only one of seniors at Monte Vista Mobile Estates that are upset over signals they think are too short to safely cross five lanes of traffic, the Daily News reported.

At least one of the seniors reportedly calls a cab just to cross the street.



Coyle told the paper that she has been fighting her ticket. She doesn’t have a vehicle or a telephone, and said she was carrying her groceries home when she got the ticket.



"I think it's completely outrageous," Coyle told the paper. "I can't walk without a stick and I lose my balance.



"He treated me like a 6-year-old, like I don't know what I'm doing. I'm in shock that somebody's going to stop me on a green light while crossing the street."



Los Angeles police Sgt. Mike Zaboski of the Valley Traffic Division said police are cracking down on people who improperly cross streets because pedestrian accidents are above normal. He said he could not comment on Coyle's ticket other than to say that it is her word against that of the citing officer, identified only as Officer Kelly.



"I'd rather not have angry pedestrians," Zaboski said. "But I'd rather have them be alive."



Others, however, supported Coyle's contention that the light in question doesn't give people enough time to cross the busy, five-lane boulevard.



"I can go halfway, then the light changes," said Edith Krause, 78, who uses an electric cart because she has difficulty walking.



On Friday, the light changed too quickly even for high school students to make it across without running. It went from green to red in 20 seconds.

 

Amerika

 

Man... thats just fucked up.

 

The land of the Free!. Justice .....blah blah .

 

why the hell didn't the ass hole cop go out in the street and help someone that age with groceries and a walking stick cross the street. He obviously wasn't serving and protecting hmmm.

 

oh my fuck..

 

How much trouble it is to adjust the timing on that light? The best part is this happen in the liberal state of California .

 

people for points?

 

Since when ? those are very rare and far apart.

 

Reminds me of that scene from the old 'Get Smart' sitcom back in the 60s when agent Smart was running across the intersection to get to the court house to testify against the Kaos gangsters while Kaos agents were shooting at him from the rooftops. He ended up on the other side of the street next to a police officer.

Smart: Boy that was close, officer. I nearly got killed.
Officer: Naturally. You were jaywalking. I'm writing you up.
Smart: But officer, they were trying to kill me!
Officer: That's homicide. I'm traffic.
Smart: But...
Officer: Now go back and cross that intersection the proper way.

So Smart walks slowly all around the intersection while the Kaos goons fire on him from the rooftops all over again.

.

 

thats not very fair.. how that officer gonna make it then he get old..
i'm shocked over that, police can do such things..

 

The smartest thing would be to make a central reservation. That doesn't have any effect on the traffic and it solves the problem...

 

That's what I was thinking.

He didn't care about her safety, he was just some jerk on a power trip is all.

There are times when I think that senior citizens get too much slack for things, but there are times when it is NECESSARY to cut them some slack as well.

For instance, my grandma's husband, he's close to 90 years old, and he drives everywhere, when he really is not physicall equipped to do so. His senses are shot...he can't hear when I talk to him, he can barely see.... and one day he was pulled over for RIDICULOUSLY speeding 55 in like a 35 mph zone. The cop let him off with a warning because he was old. But should he even be driving in the first place? It's more of a DANGER for him to be driving in the first place.

But then, in a case where an 80 year old woman, is safely trying to cross the road, and can NOT PHYSICALLY WALK ANY FASTER, she is attacked by the police ???

I mean c'mon.

I especially loved the end of the article, about the high school students.

If physically fit teenagers can't even cross the road in time, then instead of handing out tickets they should be changing the timing on the lights. Not blaming it on other people for not having jets on their backpacks like Boba Fette or something.

 

Well if Hippies can protest about KFC im sure this would be a much better novel idea protest . And this happens all over, i have a light with similar problems here. ""not quite as bad as this one but close. many older do get cought with green light but since the traffic is stop and it is a 1 way road most driver stay put. but on a double lane road this could spell death.

 

No kidding...

What a jerk.

 

not just jerk .....granted they are lots fine cops buy they are spread out . in major cities cops in gerneral are assholes . again a few good cops are found in just about any police force. if they can do this to a old ladie living her last days imagen what they would do to a teen or some1 in theyr 20s or 30s etc. And this is nothing they do far worse . even when they kill flat out wrong all they get is a slap on the wrist. me and you = the gas chamber.

 

That has nothing to do with this. Maybe you should look up the KFC protest info (kentuckyfriedcruelty.com) before bringing it into this conversation. You don't have to choose between defending animals and defending an elderly woman. A good person would do both.


That cop was a complete waste of DNA. Any sane or ethical person would have not only not sited her a ticket, but helped her across the street. We throw away old people in this country.
As a young person, I do get annoyed at the speed of older people, think they (and anyone else) should not be able to renew their licenses if they are not capable of driving (you can do it my MAIL here!), etc. The same stuff they did when they were younger. This situation is about decency though. Any decent person would not treat another person like this.
That cop should be ashamed of himself. What a spineless bastard.

 

That's so fucking stupid. I mean, don't they have more important things to worry about than giving a woman who can't move around too well a stupid ticket because she's too SLOW...hell, where was the cop when the high school kids were "running too slow"?

Why is it so stinking hard to fix that light and be done with it?

 

you need a million miles of red tape before the local goverment does anything . i guess you have not known how ineficient local goverment is yet. Have you ever try to get a driver license in a big city? at the driver license dept? . thank god we can renew the licence now online other wise i would had slit my wrist . or just gave up driving .

 

Outrageous and inhumane.