From the fresnobee.com | Local News:
One of the most passionate and persistent of critics to visit City Hall was Dr. David Pepper. In 1997, street racers welcomed him to the Tower District. Two drivers charged down Van Ness Avenue at 90 mph.
One car jumped a curb and crashed into Pepper's new home. He paid $19,000 for repairs. His car was next. It was totaled a year later when two trucks careened down his street. He persuaded neighbors and other doctors to speak to the City Council, "and tell them that speeding is a huge problem in this area."
They asked for more stop signs, crosswalks and traffic officers. Stop signs eventually were added to Pepper's neighborhood, but his crusade against bad drivers continued. Van Ness Avenue is often dotted with homemade signs demanding that drivers slow down to obey the 30 mph speed limit.
Pepper decided in 1999 that speeding problems extended far beyond his neighborhood. Drivers whizzed throughout the city, he says, because police were not writing tickets. The results were deadly. During a five-year period beginning in 1997, 186 people died in Fresno collisions, more than any other California city with a similar population size. Fresno's fatalities topped those of Long Beach (142 from 1997 through 2001), Sacramento (178) and Oakland (181), according to the California Highway Patrol.
Dave Pepper is a family physician who has clearly had an impact on the health of his community. Nice going, Dave.
Jacob:
How is the world did you find this article…. a google find ?
e-mail from Pepper 😉
Hmmm…..seems to me that the Fresno police generated themselves a nice budget increase and the county which is already getting hosed by the rest of California’s budget problems loses out. And all because of an average rate of death’s per year that’s only 0.5% higher than Oakland’s and Sacramento’s?
I grow very suspicious when law enforcement can generate revenue directly by its actions. Each of those cops doing traffic duty is either not doing something more useful OR is an addition to a self-generating bureacracy that has a new tool to fund itself with … tactics which have seen the war on drugs take over our law enforcement agencies.