On MAR 19, 2008, a 9 year old boy and his 11 year old friend were playing in a vacant lot near their homes in Bakersfield, CA. Sometime during this happy time the 11 year old ran to his parents and authorities reporting that the 9 year old was shot, and subsequently abducted by, a black clad man driving a dark colored Honda Civic with one white door. Authorities in the area instantly issued an Amber Alert and the statewide electronic sign displays along almost all interstates and major freeways lit up. Amber Alerts, with these electronic signs, provide basic information to highway drivers alerting them to keep and eye out for the car and child, and to report any sightings to the local authorities or California Highway Patrol.In this particular instance, the original report of the 9 year old being kidnapped was very much incorrect. A few hours later it was determined the poor lad had been playing in the vacant lot with the 11 year old in a tunnel they were digging under a derelict concrete slab, leftover from an old construction. As the 9 year old was inside this tunnel it collapsed, trapping the boy under many hundreds of pounds of earth and concrete pieces. A tragedy for sure, especially since the 11 year old initially panicked and told an un-truth about what really happened to the 9 year old - that is the 9 year old being shot and abducted - and not a victim of earthen entrapment. The 9 year old perrished under the tunnel collapse. Perhaps if the 11 year old had told the truth about what happened right up front the 9 year old could have been saved. We will perhaps never know. Our hearts go out to the 9 year old's parents, family and friends for his passing.
But what allows this sad story to be doccumented here isn't what the two boys were doing, or the actions of the 11 year old to not tell anyone what really happened until it was too late. What make this one filed under HIGHWAY A-HOLE status, is that the people who run the Amber Alert system totally fell down in managing the info to the highway motorists. How you ask? Read on.
The 11 year old reported the false shooting and abduction to Bakersfield authorities between 10:15 am and 10:30 am. The Amber Alert for the "abduction" was on the highway message boards by 10:45 am. Local news agencies had the story on the wire services and local TV news by 12:00 noon.
The sad relevation as to what really happened to the 9 year old was confirmed by approximately 3:05 pm as his body was located and excavated in quick time by urban rescue teams from Kern County, the county Bakersfield is in.
The problem however, is that the Amber Alert remained up and on display throughout the Southern half of CA until 7:20pm - that's over four hours AFTER the 9 year old was recovered, which is when the Amber Alerts should have been cancelled and removed from the highway sign displays.
When an Amber Alert is displayed on these very large, very bright highway signs, cars passing always slow down to read them. This causes traffic to slow to a speed one half of normal way before, to just past, the Amber Alert displays. When an Amber Alert is displayed during one of Southern CA's rush hours - like between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm - traffic flow is destroyed to a very slow crawl.
Now I can totally understand displaying Amber Alert messages during rush hour if there is truely an active abduction in process. The authorities should do whatever possible to find abductors and abductees. But when an incident has been resolved for a period of time nearly longer than the total running time of the films "Ben Hur" or "The Ten Commandments" combined it's un-excusable.
I think that for not performing due dilligentce to the law agencies involved in the tragedy, as well as to Southern CA commuting drivers, the people who run the Amber Alert system should be considered, for at least one day this week, Highway A-Holes.
Also, thanks to the falsely extended Amber Alert, my commute from Sunset Blvd N to the 101 freeway W, a distance of less than 6 miles, took 1h 9m to complete. It normally takes about 16 minutes to travel the same distance that same time of day.
7 comments:
ACTUALLY SIR... Little Zane was not removed from that sump until well AFTER 6 pm. It was not confirmed that Zane was in that sump until approx. 4:15 pm that day when law-enforcement officers found him. The Amber Alert was canceled then and there. Do you not think that the increased traffic MIGHT have had something to do with Holiday travels for the weekend? I'm sure there are many more contributing factors to your commute time that day than just the Amber Alert. (I have yet to see someone stop traffic dead to write that information down...) And you have the nerve to use this little boy's death as an out for YOUR ranting. Our entire town spent hours searching for this child... worrying... praying... and now grieving. Never once will you hear a single soul complain about the increased travel times locally due to this situation. Not once will you hear the neighbors of this family complain about not having access to their homes for the ENTIRE day. You can not even humble yourself to the thought that this situation has affected so much more than YOUR commute time through LA. Sounds to me like YOU dear Sir are the ass-hole!!!!
Anonymous "ACTUALLY SIR", he Amber Alert was erroneously left up too long after the boy was located (that's part of the actual criteria used in deciding a cancellation). It was our fault the alert was left activated after the fact, and our office has publicly apologized for the oversight.
If you look at the wheel pass record for Interstate 405 on that day, you would see that there was not an overly excessive amount of cars using the road. Since this event happened on Wednesday of last week, it is highly unlikely that the upcoming Easter Weekend blitz would cause such a jam until two days later.
Suzie Cassian
CA DOT Information Services
Having lived and commuted in Los Angeles for far too long, I understand the frustration caused by traffic congestion. I don't know if you are aware of this website http://www.sigalert.com/ but you can always check the commute times prior to leaving for your destination to help determine the quickest route. KNX 1070 (AM) also offers traffic updates every 7 minutes or so.
Now I understand why it took so long to get home that day. Car radio said the boy was found around 330 but I saw the signs still blinking at 6 driving home.
that really sucks for everyone dudes. that traffic was really screwing the pooch that day and yeah i saw the signs too. everyone was slowing down to read dem.
LA is mourning one of it's fallen fire fighters today. The traffic here in downtown is all choked because the funeral procession that has 300 cars in it. Are you going to bitch about that too?
While I appreciate comments on this topic, people need to keep things in perspective in regards to what I wrote.
Never have I said that the death of the young boy in Bakersfield was the cause of the traffic nightmare in LA that day. If the deceased was discovered and ID'd at about 3 PM T(according to radio reports all over the LA air-waves that day), then the Amber Alert should have been cancelled shortly thereafter, and not over 4 hours later. If you read the original blog post, I state is is totally expected to have an Amber Alert active when someone is actively being searched for. I see where someone supposedly with the Department of Transportation wrote that they acknowleged the oversight and "apologized" for it. That was an appropriate response and one I am happy they made.
Also, if you read the original blog post, I state it is totally expected to have an Amber Alert active when someone is actively being searched for, just not 4 hours _after_ he was found.
Concerning today's funeral procession for a LAFD fireman who was killed last week in an unfortunate rescue accident; no Amber Alert was issued for this particular event, since none was required - they obviously knew were he was. So what's your point?
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