Safer drivers needed, not more taxes
Dear editor,
In the April 1 edition of the Press-Banner, the front page story was about the rise in Highway 17 crashes. The article reported that automobile accidents on Highway 17 have steadily increased since 2012.
Ginger Dykaar, a transportation planner for Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and the Safe on 17 Task force, suggested that “It comes down to motorists driving in a safe manner. It’s really up to the motorists to pay attention to what’s happening.” She went on to say that, “A lot more people are using their cell phones to send texts.”
Officer Ross Lee of the California Highway Patrol said that, “17 is not dangerous. (It’s) a very safe roadway when you are following the speed limit and not following too closely.” Officer Lee concluded by telling us, “The onus to keep Highway 17 safe lies with the drivers … it all comes down to paying attention and not being complacent.”
As a careful driver and a concerned citizen, what I learned from these experts while driving is to: pay attention, don’t talk on the phone or text, don’t speed and don’t follow too closely. That’s sound advice that we all should heed when driving.
But this is where my confusion comes in. While Ms. Dykaar and Officer Lee urge us all to be careful driving, they both apparently feel that the REAL way to insure driver safety is to increase our already high county sales tax by another half-cent! In fact, Ms. Dykaar tells us, “That’s a significant effort (increasing the sales tax) our staff is working on right now.”
Please give me a break! We are advised to drive more carefully and then give the county a half-cent more sales tax for doing so. Why stop there? Maybe we could pick up the trash along our roadways and pay the county for the privilege of doing that as well.
Tom Decker, Ben Lomond
• Editor’s note: Officer Ross Lee was asked no questions about the possibility of asking Santa Cruz County voters to approve a sale tax increase and did not offer any opinion about such a proposal.
Dryer sheets not benign
Dear editor,
Just about every day we go outside to breathe the great fresh air that our area provides. But because of our neighbor’s daily use of dryer sheets that take the cling and static out of your clothes our air is polluted by the toxic chemicals that are present in those sheets that are released into the environment because the flow of air moves that polluted air into our yard for us to breathe in.
People are more and more limiting their use of the fireplace to help keep our air cleaner, and our car’s emissions are far less than years ago. We think it is just as important to make people aware of the dangers of using those so called fragrant dryer sheets. They might smell good to some folks, but the fragrance merely covers up the noxious chemicals that will possibly hurt us. When we walk outside and she is drying her clothes, we have to go back into the house to avoid breathing in those chemicals. It is truly disturbing and the smell to us is disgusting and makes us nauseous. We can’t even go outside to enjoy our property. We can’t approach her about this for a number of reasons. But that is a separate issue.
So what are the chemicals in these sheets that can cause health issues that we can avoid when people stop using these products? The federal government does not require disclosure like food containers require. I suppose the lobbyists have done their job well. Let’s educate each other for a healthier environment. The odor from these chemicals might dissipate, but not their presence in our air.
1. Alpha-Terpineol
2. Benzyl Alcohol
3. Camphor
4. Chloroform
5. Ethyl Acetate
6. Linalool
7. Pentane
Errol Specter, Ben Lomond
