Seat belts vital in surviving rollovers
A
QThe column urging SUV drivers to slow down was so timely. I was traveling south on Interstate 680 in Danville when not one, not two, but three SUVs blew by me at about 90 miles an hour. That was so frightening, but something I witness far too frequently.
AI’m sure you do, and Consumer Reports concludes that many drivers don’t know to drive an SUV safely, but most probably think they do. Every day maneuvers can be difficult such as taking a turn too quickly.
Drivers cannot operate an SUV like it is a four-door sedan but often try to, which is a common cause of rollovers, according to Consumer Reports. And if a speeding SUV hits a curb, pothole or dodges an animal, it can flip over too easily. Perhaps the most concerning statistic shows that 75% of all occupants killed in SUV rollovers were not wearing seat belts.
Far too many SUV drivers appear to think that bigger vehicles can be driven faster than is safe. Do you agree with that?
Q
A reader suggested that free parking at meters for people with disabled placards be eliminated because others were abusing the privilege.
too.
QI understand, and hopefully others will,
I just read your article about the DMV computer hack, and a few hours later I received a text saying that I “must update (my DMV) contact number.” Attached was a click-through to “Load Preview.” I did not click. I
A don’t trust this. What do A valuable recommendation. you think? Peace of
— Jack Lynch, Los Gatos mind is a good thing.
The free parking and unlimited time at meters are not to give disabled people a price break. The reason is that in many areas, such as in San Francisco, there are not convenient disabled parking spots, and it is too difficult for those people to walk back to feed the meter or move their cars. When I had knee surgery
A and had difficulty Ignore it, and ignore walking for weeks after other requests to get that, it was very necessary private information. But to use a disabled parking here is what you can do. permit for that very reason.
Q I read your recommendations
— Dale Allison, Sunnyvale regarding
the DMV hacking breach. You might want to suggest that people can go to their banks, and to Equifax, Experian or TransUnion to have a fraud alert on their financial information. It was fairly easy and left me with considerable peace of mind.
— L. Engelbert, Saratoga
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SAN FRANCISCO >> Federal prosecutors in the Bay Area have charged a man with robbing four banks and attempting to rob two more within a two-month period that started in December, court records show.
Aklilu Asefaha, 45, faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of the bank robbery charges. The alleged offenses occurred in Sonoma, San Mateo, Marin, and Alameda counties, according to the criminal complaint.
Asefaha was arrested last month in Berkeley after a police officer found him asleep in his car and realized he was a wanted bank robbery suspect, the news site Berkeleyside reported last month.
The robbery spree allegedly began Dec. 30, when Asefaha allegedly entered a Chase Bank in Novato and claimed to have a gun, telling a teller, “give me all your money or I’ll blow a hole in you!” The teller stalled things out by claiming money couldn’t be accessed until they logged into a computer, and Asefaha ran out o the bank empty handed, prosecutors say.
Asefaha was identified as a suspect after he allegedly got $40,000 by robbing a Bank of America in Belmont. Authorities matched a Ford Fusion to that robbery as well as the incident in Novato and a January robbery in Dublin, then realized that Asefaha had rented the car, according to the criminal complaint.
Authorities also matched surveillance footage of the robber to footage of Asefaha gambling at a Northern California casino, as well as footage of Asefaha driving to Emeryville to dispose of a GPS device the teller handed the robber during the Belmont incident, according to the complaint.
Asefaha is next due in court for a detention hearing Friday. In the meantime he is being detained at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, court records show.