82-year-old’s $114 jaywalking ticket under fire!!

[Charade]

WOW!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11072378/?GT1=7938

LOS ANGELES - Mayvis Coyle got more than just a $114 jaywalking ticket for taking too long to cross a busy street.

With the 82-year-old woman’s fine has come international celebrity — she has camera crews showing up at her home, invitations to appear on television and support from around the world.

“I didn’t want all this publicity,” Coyle said Thursday. “But I’m not objecting to being used if it gets the lights changed and gets respect for the elderly.”

Los Angeles police officials say Coyle entered a busy San Fernando Valley intersection on Feb. 15 after the red “Don’t Walk” sign began blinking. They say the department is cracking down on wayward pedestrians because an increasing number of them are being killed by cars.

Coyle says she began shuffling across the intersection with her cane in one hand and groceries in the other on a white “Walk” signal. The great-great-grandmother plans to fight the ticket.

Her plight has drawn attention from blogs such as the Drudge Report and media around the world. “STICK YOUR FINE,” Scotland’s Glasgow Daily Record said.

Now, camera crews show up at Coyle’s trailer unannounced, asking her to tell and retell her story. Because she doesn’t have a phone, the trailer park’s office manager has been taking messages; “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” called Thursday, wanting to book an appearance.

People who e-mailed the Los Angeles Daily News, which first reported Coyle’s story on Monday, generally agreed that the officer should have simply escorted her across the street.

“Where are the Boy Scouts when you need them?” wrote one reader from Washington state. “This is so beyond ridiculous!”

The office of City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is reviewing Coyle’s ticket, spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel has directed transportation officials to figure out how to make signals longer near senior housing and community centers. They’ve already lengthened the walk light at the intersection where Coyle was ticketed.

 

[Planogirl]

That's a HUGE fine! I hope that she at least gets it reduced.

 

[Tiziminchac]

That'll teach her old butt!

 

[Charade]

You go (slow) Granny!

 

[twinklebug]

$114 jaywalking ticket on Mastercard
Getting the lights changed and respect for the elderly.... priceless.

My town recently put up a set of EXTREAMLY expensive lights in the center of town and now, more than a half year later has yet to take the covers off the cross walk signals and program them. An elderly woman was hit and killed a few months back, I'm not saying because of the lights that never were there to start with, but IF they had been working, it could have SAVED her life.

Cheapness at the sake of other's lives makes me so mad.

 

[FreshTressa]

This reminds me of DH's great uncle. He was over 100 and lived across the street from the grocery store, where he walked every day.

One day..he got hit and died...otherwise in perfect health.

 

[anewvance]

Haha, been watching this on Ellen. She sent a guy there who is 39 to try to cross the street at the same intersection and even HE couldn't get across. Guess we won't be seeing her on Ellen... hoping she at least gets the ticket reduced or even better not have to pay. It was a ridiculously quick changing walk signal.

 

[AllyandJack]

Yet, here in Boston people just dart out into traffic whenever they feel like it and nobody does anything to stop it. Cops really need to get their priorities straight.

 

[MouseWorshipin]

Old people are dying while crossing the street, so the government boys decide to "fix" this by giving them less time?

Maybe they never played Frogger as kids.

OMG, have we become that crass a society that we can't wait for an old lady to cross the street?

 

[tmt martins]

This is why I drive 1/2 block across the street to my 7-11 and the next block to Rite-aids .That way they can't ticket me for Jaywalking.

 

[HaleyB]

OMG, have we become that crass a society that we can't wait for an old lady to cross the street?

Exactly what I was thinking. And those that are there to serve and protect wrote her a ticket, it would have taken the same amount of time to help her across the street, and I donno, maybe carry her grocery bag. What is the world comeing too?

 

[froglady]

Haha, been watching this on Ellen. She sent a guy there who is 39 to try to cross the street at the same intersection and even HE couldn't get across. Guess we won't be seeing her on Ellen... hoping she at least gets the ticket reduced or even better not have to pay. It was a ridiculously quick changing walk signal.

ITA! I'm younger and fit (I walk daily) but still have the signal flashing red when I'm halfway across the street. No way could anyone 80+ make it!

 

[alliecats]

What a turd. I hope the lady beats the ticket. I can't stand people being mean or disrespectful to the elderly, children, or animals. Brings out the whup-*** in me.

 

[disykat]

While it seems kind of cruel to enforce it, if she entered the crosswalk after the "don't walk" started flashing - she was jaywalking. Her age doesn't have anything to do with that.

 

[alliecats]

She entered at the white, WALK signal. Legally, she did what she was supposed to do.
ETA: at least that is what she has claimed. Earlier a poster said Ellen sent a 39-year old and he couldn't make it across in time either...

 

[Disney Doll]

Exactly what I was thinking. And those that are there to serve and protect wrote her a ticket, it would have taken the same amount of time to help her across the street, and I donno, maybe carry her grocery bag. What is the world comeing too?

Well, the problem with that is that the person who was being robbed at the same time the cop was helping the little old lady across the street and carrying her grocery bag would complain that the cops were useless and all they want to do is help little old ladies across the street.

If it was you getting robbed, where woiuld you want the cop to be?

Do I think the walk signal should be longer to allow those who walk a little slower to make it all the way across? Well, obviously it should.

Also, ponder if it had been a 16 year old kid who got ticketed? Would you all be so up in arms? Does age remove the need to obey the law?

Jay-walking is not crossing the street "straight" from corner to corner It is crossing the street diagonally from corner to corner, which is a much longer "trip" and quite frankly, if that's what the woman was doing, and she knows she walks slow, and she knows ahe'd be holding up traffic, then she should have gotten a ticket.

 

[Planogirl]

Jaywalking is crossing any busy street without benefit of signal from what I understand. It's irrelevant which corner one is crossing to.

So what should the lady do? Or anyone for that matter if they can't get across in time? Not everyone drives.

 

[AllyandJack]

If she started during the "walk" sign and she was going as fast as she could, there is no reason to give her a ticket. The idiots who mosey across the street like they're the only people alive should be ticketed. Maybe the cop is afraid of approaching anyone but an old lady.

 

[alliecats]

If said 16-year-old for some reason had the mobility and physical condition of an 81-year-old, then of course I would be up in arms about it. Naturally 81-year- olds can't move as fast as younger people can, and age enters into that. If age or physical condition hinders you from being able to move fast enough to beat a speedy signal, then that's a no brainer.--fix the signal or don't bust people for something they can't help if the city can't/won't fix it.

The policeman had enough time to write a citation, so could easily have walked her across in that same time. If a bank/person had been being robbed, etc, when he was writing her a citation he probably would have caught hell for that as much as for walking her across, IMO. Odds of a robbery right then & there where he should have been happening pretty slim, though, LOL.

 

[Maleficent13]

The policeman had enough time to write a citation, so could easily have walked her across in that same time. If a bank/person had been being robbed, etc, when he was writing her a citation he probably would have caught hell for that as much as for walking her across, IMO.

I can hear it now:

"This guy made off with my register because you were busy ticketing an 82 year old lady for jaywalking???? Are you nuts???"