Letters to the editor for Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015

Don’t follow too closely

One thing that can lead to a car crash or road rage is tailgating. This is also known as following too closely.

Nevada law states, “The driver of a vehicle shall not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon and the condition of the highway.”

Simply put, you must not follow so closely that you are not able to avoid a collision. As the driver you must take into consideration the road conditions, weather, amount of traffic on the roadway and any other factors that may lead to a crash should you not be following at a safe distance.

A good rule of thumb is to consider keeping a distance of one car length for every 10 miles per hour that you are traveling. The average car length is around 12 to 13 feet. Obviously there are smaller vehicles on the roadway, but this is a good length to judge by to safely maintain distance between you and the motor vehicle ahead of you.

In the event you are following too close and should end up in a car crash, your seat belt should be secured, and if your vehicle is so equipped, your air bags may deploy. The combination of these two safety devices may make the difference from walking away or taking a ride in an ambulance to the hospital.

Sgt. Scott McDaniel

Carson City Sheriff’s Office

Airlines have a lack of compassion

My husband, a 100 percent disabled veteran, passed away unexpectedly on Nov. 26 at Renown Hospital. I have no family except a brother who lives in Ohio.

My husband and I lived a quiet, simple life in Washoe Valley, and I have no close friends in Northern Nevada. So that I would not be completely alone after my husband’s tragic passing, my brother flew out from Cincinnati to Reno on Southwest Airlines within two days to be with me. Due to the extenuating circumstances, there was no way to purchase an advance ticket, so the one-way ticket was $550. He stayed with me for 10 days, then flew US Airways (American Airlines) back to Ohio. Once again, there was no advance fare available, so that return ticket was $450.

I wrote the CEOs of both airlines to ask if there was any type of fare discount considering the situation. Neither CEO even read the letter, simply passed it on to customer service. In both instances, I was told, “Sorry for your loss, but we pride ourselves on offering the lowest fares, so, no, we do not offer any death or bereavement discounts.”

Shame on both airlines for your lack of compassion. This lack of kindness and empathy is precisely what is wrong with our society today.

Crystal Elliott

Washoe Valley

LCB staff excellent at symposium

We, Citizens for Sound Academic Standards, appreciated the excellent job the staff at the Legislative Counsel Bureau did to help us plan a quality symposium on Common Core. They were efficient, timely, informative and interested in doing a first-class job. Hats off to Jen, Becky, Susan, and to Jackie, Legislative Police, and the production crew at the event.

Everyone did a stellar job to keep things going. Thank you!

Conversely — and what a dichotomy — the Department of Education did everything possible to disrupt, divert, and distract from the purpose of this event. Appointed public servants must think they are immune from common courtesy and civility.

Ann Bednarski

Citizens for Sound Academic Standards

Constituent urges Wheeler to vote for education package

Assemblyman Jim Wheeler has said he will vote for anything his constituents want. OK, I’ll go first: Assemblyman Wheeler, I want you to vote for Gov. Sandoval’s education package, including the tax increases needed to pay for it.

Don Southwick

Carson City

Electing school board members is the way to go

The proposed suggestion given by Gov. Sandoval on Thursday’s speech with regards to appointing members of school boards across the state instead of electing like we currently is not a good idea.

For starters, appointing school board members instead of electing them like we have been in Nevada forever means less accountability to the public in which they are supposed to serve and only answering to elected officials. If they only serve elected officials rather than the public, answers don’t have to be given with regards to policy making and overall matters. There is no recourse for citizens when things go astray. The other issue with the proposed suggestion is that even though not a perfect option, why change now after all of these years of electing school board members? Changing formats after all this time doesn’t seem to make much sense.

The format we have currently is not perfect, but it gives the public accountability that all school districts need and changing into an appointed one would not be advantageous to citizens that board members need to serve.

Bill Miller

Las Vegas