Red Phone and columnist Ben Anderson recently recounted the
Brayan Trejo accidental death.
&
amp;#8194; We all feel terrible about it.
&
amp;#8194;The apportionment of blame by percentage is really
beyond the expertise of the Red Phone and the valuation of life is
not really in the realm of this world by your columnist.
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amp;#8194;
A cost-effective way to improve pedestrian safety, avoid tragedy
Dear Editor,
Red Phone and columnist Ben Anderson recently recounted the Brayan Trejo accidental death.  We all feel terrible about it. The apportionment of blame by percentage is really beyond the expertise of the Red Phone and the valuation of life is not really in the realm of this world by your columnist. 
There is a concern that I have not seen raised in any of these discussions. Yes, a left-turn signal would help keep pedestrians out of the way of autos. The same degree of safety could be achieved if the timing of the light was set to not send pedestrians and cars into the cross street at the same time. Give the pedestrians exclusive use of the crosswalk without having to look backward for left-turn traffic. Quit sending left-turn traffic into the intersection on a walk signal. 
Traffic might slow enough to turn but not enough to yield to a pedestrian who is crossing with a pedestrian “walk” signal at the same time. Left and straight traffic would have to wait for pedestrians at a red signal and when given a green signal they could expect pedestrians are not going to be in the intersection with them. This is not the only intersection with this problem.
Some are much busier and have more children crossing. This can be done without spending millions of dollars and it can be done quickly all over town. 
I would be willing to wait a few seconds longer to be assured that the intersection is safe for me to enter. It’s better than being publicly vilified and demonized for having the bad luck to arrive at the intersection at the same time pedestrians are being sent into my path.
John Herren, Gilroy
Fire chief responds to questions about response time to event
Dear Editor,
As the Gilroy fire chief, I am compelled to respond to a letter in the April 4 issue of The Dispatch titled “Medical response time a concern…” from Esperanza Cid. She stated she was concerned about a 10-minute response to a medical call which occurred in the downtown area.
If Ms. Cid was referring to the statement in the March 18 edition of The Dispatch which quoted the security guard from the Rio Nilo who said it took 10 minutes for help to arrive, then I can understand why she might be concerned about response time. To correct the record, the actual response time for the Gilroy Fire paramedic engine company that responded to the Rio Nilo call was 4 minutes and 22 seconds from the time the fire department received the dispatch until the engine company arrived at the incident.
I would like to assure all readers that public safety is of course our highest priority and that the Gilroy Fire Department maintains a high level of commitment to meeting our response time goal of arriving at the scene of any incident within five minutes after receiving the dispatch from our 911 communications center. 
This is a high standard that is very difficult to reach and not always possible to achieve. There may be occasions when we have simultaneous and overlapping calls for service or large-scale incidents that commit most or all of our resources from our three fire stations.
These situations could potentially extend response times to another call for service that occurs when all of our resources are committed to other calls. When the existing emergency response system in Gilroy becomes over-challenged at any given point in time we, like other California Fire Departments, have overlapping systems in place including automatic and mutual aid agreements with neighboring jurisdictions to provide assistance to our community. 
Also, in the case of larger scale or multiple overlapping incidents, we initiate a call-back process of off-duty firefighters and paid-call firefighters. 
Again, as your fire chief and all of our very dedicated Gilroy fire personnel, are committed to providing the community with a high level of emergency response services and we thank you for your ongoing support. 
Dale E. Foster, fire chief
Appreciates community generosity and paper’s support for Tip-a-Cop
Dear Editor,
The recent Tip-A-Cop event was a great success! The community came out and really supported the fundraiser for the Special Olympics.
Thanks to the community’s generosity, $2,208 will help the special athletes.
Thanks again for getting the word out about this great event. 
Nicole Nielsen, Neighborhood Resource Unit Office Assistant
