Mailbag: Driving with flip-flops on can be dangerous

On Sept. 13, as many of us do every day, I was driving in flip-flop sandals.

I was in the process of leaving the Whole Foods parking lot to turn onto Ocean Avenue, and after waiting for an opening in traffic, I began to pull out of the driveway. As I switched my right foot from the brake to the gas pedal, the flip-flop on my right foot wedged behind the brake and twisted.

When I tried to dislodge the sandal, the top portion of the sandal applied full-throttle pressure to the accelerator, shooting my car across Ocean Avenue and into a parked car. The impact created a deafening and frightening sound, deployed the air bags and jammed me into my seat.

Within minutes, I was being assisted by police, fire and paramedic personnel, and then taken to Mission Hospital, where I was also well cared for.

It is difficult for me to consider what could have happened if my car had struck a sidewalk full of pedestrians rather than a parked car.

I share this terrifying personal experience to caution others of the dangers of driving in flip-flop sandals. The potential for danger is not worth the ease and comfort flip-flops provide.

Lastly, I received good advice from one of the officers who came to my aid. He simply stated that when he is wearing flip-flops, he slips them off before driving and added, “It is not against the law to drive bare-footed.”

Carl Post

Laguna Beach

*

Not hypocritical, just analytical

Thanks James Dorf, I just love to respond to silly accusations (“Mailbag: Letter writer shows his hypocrisy,” Sept. 16.)

If my panning of some bans and supporting other bans makes me a hypocrite, in your esteemed opinion, then I have a lot of good company. Evaluating the worth of one thing against another thing is not being hypocritical; it is being analytical.

For example: If you think creating an unnecessary inconvenience for most people by banning useful plastic bags, but banning overgrown trees in the wrong locations that are destroying Laguna’s unique, beautiful, valuable, and irreplaceable view sheds are of equal importance, then your sense of values needs a major overhaul.

Dave Connell

Laguna Beach

*

‘Affordable’ restaurants should be city priority

Your Sept. 23 Mailbag edition published Gene Gratz (“There are plenty of affordable restaurants”) and Justin Nedelman (City needs to flex power for middle-price restaurants”) concerning Laguna’s restaurants, focusing on the need for “middle price” and efficaciously “affordable” restaurants in Laguna Beach.

Lately, your Gossiping Gourmets, Elle Harrow and Terry Markowtiz, have been applauding out-of-town dining. Gratz and Nedelman write about the need for an Elle-Terry critique on price, affordability and quality cuisine.

Although Norm’s, Coco’s and Mimi’s Cafe are affordable, middle-priced, quality dining, regularly patronized by families, students and the budgetary-constrained, their chain-links are banned in Laguna Beach — breached here and there by limitation statutes.

Nedelman’s proposals for selected zoning changes is a viable option, but the City Council is obligated to its 12-month residents and constituents for urgent consideration.

Bruce Hopping

Laguna Beach

*

Open Space Initiative just makes sense

I’m wondering what the hoopla is about the Open Space Initiative. Seems like we all live here because we have the need to be submersed and surrounded in beauty.

I am relieved and proud that we find preserving open space a priority. Let’s continue to be the example. It makes sense on so many levels.

Meghan E. Kelly

Laguna Beach