ABUSE REPORT:
Police officer apologizes for ticketing teen
Date of Incident:
Received: Wed, 18 May 2005 19:04:36 -0700
Back to the Bike the Bridge! Coalition.
VIA: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/11674612.htm
Police officer apologizes for ticketing teen
*By Julie Patel*
*Mercury News*
Cycling enthusiasts raised a fit after reading in the Mercury News last
week how eighth-grader Matt Jost got a ticket for riding his bicycle
with one hand.
``I didn't even know that was a rule,'' the Terman middle-schooler said
after an officer caught him riding while talking on his cell phone.
Turns out, it's not.
Palo Alto police Sgt. Steve Herrera has backtracked on the citation and
called Matt to apologize. He said the vehicle code in question actually
says bicyclists must keep at least one hand on the handlebars if they
are carrying something.
``I misunderstood,'' Herrera said on Tuesday.
Herrera and his team of traffic cops last week issued more than 200
tickets to bicyclists -- mostly students -- in an effort to promote bike
safety. The campaign is similar to the ``Click It or Ticket'' campaigns
police are conducting this month to enforce seat belt use.
A local bicycle group's online listserv was humming with outrage about
the cycling safety crackdown, especially the mysterious one-hand rule.
So Sunnyvale cyclist Tim Oey decided to the get to the bottom of it.
``You need to ride with one hand a lot,'' he said Tuesday. ``You need to
do it to drink water, to eat, to signal turns.''
Oey e-mailed the police department, the Palo Alto city attorney and others.
Herrera e-mailed back Monday night, apologizing for the confusion.
``When I saw the young man cycling down the street, he was very engaged
in his conversation on the phone,'' Herrera wrote. ``What I should have
done was just lecture him about paying attention when he rides and let
it go at that.''
Matt's mom, Stephanie Jost, said she was delighted to hear that police
were dismissing the citation. When she told friends about Matt's ticket,
they were surprised, as she was. She assumed it was some obscure rule.
``When I was growing up,'' she said last week, ``we would try to see if
we could ride without hands, period.''
Jost doesn't blame Herrera, though. He was looking out for the kids'
best interest, she said.
``I would've nailed Matthew, too, for not paying attention because he
was on his cell phone," she said. "It's like driving while talking on
your cell phone. All of us are guilty of doing it but we really shouldn't.''
Herrera's /mea culpa /wasn't his first. About 15 years ago, he said, he
discovered he'd messed up a traffic citation minutes before he was to
appear in court for a hearing to contest it. With 42,277 sections in the
California vehicle code, no traffic cop can remember it all.
``This does happen,'' he said. ``And if mistakes are made, they are
corrected right away.''
The dismissal doesn't mean Matt is totally in the clear. He had received
a ticket for riding the wrong way down the street a day before he
encountered Herrera.
Instead of paying the $20 fine, he'll spend a Saturday in Palo Alto's
bike safety school.
/ / Contact Julie Patel at jpatel@mercurynews.com