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Police plan to crack down on illegal crossing with fines
MCT Direct
OSU Police officers plan to start giving citations to
students who do not use crosswalks. The citations come with a minimum $206.50
fine.
Students who dare to jaywalk must decide whether the risk of paying a hefty
fine is worth venturing out of the crosswalk.
OSU Police gave warnings last week but plan to begin writing citations that
come with a minimum $206.50 fine, said Rick Balfanz, a traffic safety and
alcohol enforcement officer.
“We’re trying to avoid accidents,” Balfanz said. “That’s our No. 1
deal. We don’t want to see anybody get run over.”
In the past, officers rarely gave citations, giving verbal warnings instead
but because of an increasing number of students jaywalking, something had to
be done, Balfanz said.
However, not every person an officer sees crossing the street out of a
crosswalk will receive a citation.
“If they walk out in front of a car and that car has to slam on its brakes,
that person will probably get a citation,” Balfanz said.
“But it’s not going to be something that we all of a sudden do blanket
‘everybody gets a citation.’”
One of the reasons officers won’t begin giving citations to everyone is
because many students haven’t known the policy exists until now, Balfanz
said.
Adam Kennedy was one of the many students who crossed the street Thursday
afternoon near Lincoln Street and Hall of Fame Avenue where no crosswalk
exists.
Kennedy, a business freshman, said he had no idea the fine for jaywalking was
so high.
Kennedy said he didn’t think that once students are more aware of the law
they would stop jaywalking.
“Obviously, if there’s a cop car sitting over here,” he said. “But for
the most part, I don’t think it will affect it.”
Kennedy said he suggested a lighted crosswalk, similar to the one by the
Colvin Center, be added to the area.
Steven Gross, a hotel and restaurant administration sophomore, was another
student on the way to class who crossed at the intersection.
“It’s almost part of the local culture – to see people fearlessly
crossing the street,” Gross said.
Gross said the fee was too high for a college campus because students are
usually not wealthy people. However, Balfanz said OSU Police has nothing to do
with the fine.
Payne County sets all fines, and OSU must follow what the county sets because
the university is a state organization.
Other university police departments said their fines were much lower.
Lt. Bruce Chan, of the University of Oklahoma Police Department, said a
student would receive a $79 fine in the Norman Municipal Court.
“That is the most likely venue we would select to cite somebody if we did
choose to cite somebody for that offense,” Chan said. “It’s possible the
fine would be higher if we cited them in district court, but that’s not a
likely course of action that we would take.”
At Kansas State University, the fine for improper pedestrian crossing is $78
with an additional $60 in court costs.
Capt. Don Stubbins, of KSU, said officers give probably less than 10
citations, if that, per year.
Usually the officers give verbal warnings, he said.
At Iowa State University, students don’t have to worry too much about
improper street crossing because no jaywalking law exists in Iowa, said Capt.
Gene Deisinger, of ISU.
Laws do exist against walking out in front of traffic but if a person
doesn’t interfere with the traffic flow, no offense occurs, Deisinger said.
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Revised: January 13, 2008
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Rugby supremo takes the rap for
Labat
By INGI SALGADO
Cape Town - Former rugby supremo Brian van Rooyen has taken the blame for
problems that beset his JSE-listed business Labat Africa.
Labat is due to be delisted later this year, while Van Rooyen plans to list its
profitable subsidiary, Labat Traffic Solutions (LTS), separately on the local
bourse. He will convert its less successful integrated circuit division, South
African Micro-Electronic Systems (Sames), into a private venture.
In a frank interview with Business Report yesterday, Van Rooyen said his
involvement in the country's top rugby circles had caused reputational problems
for Labat.
"That is one of the reasons for taking this very painful step in terms of
closing this chapter on Labat, delisting and moving on," Van Rooyen said.
Mvelaphanda Holdings, which announced a deal to acquire a stake in LTS earlier
this year, said at the time that Labat's negative image had caused relatively
minor glitches in the City of Cape Town's traffic management. Cape Town
outsources this function to LTS.
Van Rooyen said Labat was in a very healthy state when he quit as chief
executive in December 2003.
By the time he returned as executive chairman in February 2006, following his
ousting from SA Rugby and being found guilty of breaching the body's code of
conduct, the company had run up debt of R90 million.
Van Rooyen believed he had done extremely well to keep the ship afloat. Labat
had cash in the bank of about R40 million this year, he said. He now wished to
hold his head high and return value to shareholders through listing LTS
separately.
Van Rooyen and his management team own about half of Labat, whose free-float of
about 13 percent falls far short of the JSE recommendation of 20 percent.
It is thought that Van Rooyen is trying to ring-fence LTS, which issues and
serves traffic fines on behalf of municipalities, from Sames, a formerly
state-owned manufacturer of microchips for the telephone and energy measurement
industries that Labat acquired in 1999.
Sames has been at the centre of a controversy between Labat and its auditing
firm, Rain. Labat and the SA Revenue Service were looking at ways to resolve the
issue. Van Rooyen said that in the meantime Labat had decided to accept the
auditor's changes in order to publish its annual report.
The JSE this week threatened to suspend Labat's listing if it did not publish
the annual report by September 28.
South Africa: Spring Cleaning Starts in Mbombela
Municipality
BuaNews
(Tshwane)
5 September 2007
Posted to the web 5 September 2007
Sydney Masinga
Nelspruit
Some R300 000 will be spent on cleaning up the streets of
the Mbombela local municipality during September.
The campaign started on Wednesday with 155 volunteers
armed with 1 000 refuse bags.
"We want to clear illegal dump sites, pick up litter,
erect notices and, install litter bins," said Mbombela spokesperson, Vusi
Sibiya.
He said local businesses had been asked to support the
initiative, which will include cleaning open spaces such as parks and trimming
trees.
"Shoprite/Checkers has promised to help us with
additional plastic bags and food for the volunteers," said Mr Sibiya.
There will be 40 volunteers in White River, 80 in
Nelspruit, ten in Hazyview, and 25 each in KaNyamazane, Matsulu and Tekwane.
Further to this, Mr Sibiya said eight tipper trucks and
four front-end loaders would also be used in the campaign.
The municipality's environmental management team will
co-ordinate all activities and meetings for the month, to ensure maximum public
participation.
The municipality has also launched Operation Buyisa (bring
back) to encourage motorists to pay some R12 million in outstanding fines.
Operation Buyisa will run throughout September and
October.
Mbombela Mayor Justice Nsibande has warned that those who
failed to pay their traffic fines before the end of October would receive no
leniency.
Municipal traffic officers would go directly to the
physical addresses of offenders who miss the cut-off date to demand that they
pay their fines.
In the next two months, motorists can negotiate amnesty or
a reduction of their outstanding traffic fines.
"We are humans. We understand that our people may not
be able to pay the full amount of their fines, so they must come to the
municipality before the end of October to make arrangements on how we can help
each other," said Mr Nsibande.
He said the money collected should be used for the
council's traffic service unit.
Time to curb that lead foot
Drivers caught by red-light cameras in Tacoma can expect
tickets starting today
JASON HAGEY; The News Tribune
Published: September 5th, 2007 01:00 AM
Consider this a warning: The warning period is over.
Beginning today, the City of Tacoma will begin ticketing the owners of
vehicles caught running red lights at intersections with automated cameras.
The $101 tickets will arrive by mail after photographs and video of the
alleged violations are screened both by representatives of Redflex Traffic
Systems, the private company that operates the cameras on behalf of the city,
and a Tacoma police officer.
The first of several new cameras began snapping photos last month, but
drivers received a 30-day grace period in which warning letters were sent
instead of tickets. More than 2,200 red-light runners were caught on camera
during that time from just one intersection, said Lt. Pete Cribbin, head of
the Tacoma traffic division. Tacoma joins several other South Sound cities
using the technology, including Lakewood, Bonney Lake and Auburn.
The intersection of Pacific Avenue and 72nd Street received Tacoma’s
first cameras. Two began operating there Aug. 6, recording violations in two
directions. A single camera at South 84th and Hosmer streets began working
Friday. A camera at South 56th Street and South Tacoma Way is expected to
begin working Monday. The city’s contract with Redflex allows for cameras at
up to 20 intersections.
In April, the City Council authorized a three-year contract with two
one-year renewals with Redflex. The Scottsdale, Ariz., company, a subsidiary
of an Australian company, is the largest provider of digital red light and
speed enforcement services in North America, according to its Web site. It
claims contracts with more than 130 U.S. cities.
City officials expect the cameras will lead to a drop in the number of
crashes, and improve public safety.
Cribbin said the cameras are targeting intersections with the highest
number of accidents. The long-term goal, he said, is to make the cameras part
of a coordinated, comprehensive approach to traffic enforcement. He envisions
“safety corridors” in which traffic officers target speeders between the
intersections where cameras target red-light runners.
The red-light cameras use speed sensors in the street to anticipate which
cars won’t stop in time, Cribbin said. When a vehicle enters an intersection
after the signal turned red, cameras photograph the car and capture a
12-second video snippet. It shows six second before the red light was run, and
six seconds after, Cribbin said.
According to the city’s contract, Redflex is responsible for installing
and maintaining the cameras, and storing data about violations. Redflex
staffers review potential violations first, before a police officer sees them,
Cribbin said.
If a license plate is undecipherable or blocked by another vehicle
following too close, or it doesn’t match the vehicle, the company will
reject it, he said. They also screen out emergency vehicles en route to a
call, he said.
After the Redflex review, officers then sign onto the company’s secure
computer network and review each potential violation. If the officer decides a
ticket is warranted, he or she signs off with an electronic signature. Redflex
then sends out a ticket.
Under state law, tickets generated by red-light cameras are considered
infractions, the same as a parking ticket, and aren’t recorded as part of
someone’s driving record.
Redflex gets paid a fixed fee of $4,850 per month for each camera,
according to its contract. However, the company guarantees that its technology
is “cost neutral” for Tacoma, meaning that fines generated by the cameras
will pay for the cost. In addition to red-light cameras, the contract allows
the city to expand the program to include photo speed enforcement in school
zones.
Critics of the automated technology say red-light cameras cause an increase
in rear-end collisions, but proponents counter that broad-side collisions –
which usually cause greater injury – decline in intersections with the
cameras.
“If you have to choose between a T-bone accident or someone tapping your
trunk in a fender-bender, which usually has no injury or a minor injury,
it’s a no-brainer,” Cribbin said.
Golf Tip: Imagine a Better Golf Swing
Wednesday September 5, 2007 | 02:25:54 pm 422 words
I have taught golf for more than 14 years now and it is funny to me, but
according to some of my students, their most memorable lessons weren't the
ones where I spent hours pouring over video of their swings, trying to come
up with the perfect swing analysis or practice program, but the ones where I
gave them a simple swing image. I usually resort to corny swing images or
clichés when I realize the person just doesn't the gist of my instruction.
"Pour the water of out the shaft," I will say to help people
understand how to hinge the club on the backswing or I will say "swing
under a low roof" to a person who is standing up out of his posture on
the backswing.
My all time favorite swing image is "toss the bananas over your
right shoulder" which I heard from one of my fellow teachers, Robert
Baker when I worked at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Orlando,
Florida.
He said this to a student, out of frustration, with tongue in cheek, when
she just couldn’t figure out how to get the club to the top of the
backswing. A few weeks later, that same student called the golf academy
looking Robert to ask him which way she was to "toss the bananas"
because she had forgotten.
So here is another one of my famous swing images for you to store in your
memory bank for a rainy day. At the top of your swing, you want to create as
much width with your arms and hands. Ideally, you want your hands to stop at
the top of your swing the same time your shoulders stop turning behind the
ball.
Many players make the mistake of continuing to swing their hands and arms
back too far in attempt to increase the size of their swing arc to get more
power (photo
1). But swinging the club back too far actually has the opposite effect
because it causes disconnections between the arms and body and ruins timing.
To help get into the correct position at the top of your swing, imagine
you are standing in a door frame, simply swing back and stop your hands in
the corner of the door (photo
2). Your hands should stop at the top when your weight has shifted
completely and your shoulders stop turning. Now you are wound up and ready
to spring into action on the downswing.
Photo 1: Overswing
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