Bike-related complaints.
increase
e Bengali
urt of
md erronet
if it had ii
ihe streel. -
the Beiial
d the appeal
that a foot!
.mother plan
:al contact
ns.
foreseeabled
reals’ decisioi
profession
engaging ii
iolenee t
the game,’!
Top 1
By LAURA CORTEZ
Battalion Reporter
The sound of screeching bicycle brakes
has become one of the most dreaded
sounds on the Texas A&M University
campus.
As the number of students attending the
University increases, so does the number
of bicycles — and bicycle-related acci
dents.
George D. Parker III, chairman of the
University traffic panel, said he is receiv
ing more complaints now than during pre
vious years from students, faculty and staff
who are fed up with having to dodge bicy
cles on campus sidewalks.
And Dr. C.B. Goswick, director of stu
dent health services, said he receives
more patients than ever before who have
been involved in this type of accident.
“We treat maybe a dozen people a day
for injuries caused by bicycle-related acci
dents,” he said.
Most of the accidents patients are
treated for at the health center are head-
on or side-to-side bicycle collisions involv
ing bicycles and automobiles or bicycles
and pedestrians, Goswick said.
He said that although the most of the
injuries are minor, such as cuts, bruises
and gravel embedded in the skin, some
have involved broken bones.
Parker, who said he volunteered to
serve on the traffic panel three years ago
after having been hit from behind and
knocked to the ground by a speeding bicy
cle, referred to the current situation as
“horrible. ”
He said the main reason for the problem
is simply that there are more bicycles on
campus now than ever before.
Parker said he believes “bikes have
been on campus forever,” but said 1973
was a boom year for them.
“In 1973, due to the energy crisis, bicy
cles were really pushed by the University
because they serve a darn good purpose.
Parking fees were doubled in the hopes
that there would be less cars and more
bikes on campus, ” he said.
Although the Texas Motor Vehicles
Laws specifies that bicycles are to be rid
den only in bicycle paths and on roadways,
Parker said the University allows them on
sidewalks and in the mall areas.
“I imagine we’ve just looked the other
way as far as this is concerned,” he said.
Although it is the responsibility of the
traffic panel, which is made up of students,
faculty and staff, to make recom
mendations concerning traffic regulations
to the vice president for student services,
it is the responsibility of the University
Police to enforce these regulations.
“We realize that it is a dangerous situa
tion,” Police Chief Russ McDonald said,
“but there’s not a lot we can do about it.”
Although bicycles are considered vehi
cles and must adhere to the same rules
which pertain to cars, bicyclists seem to
consider the themselves pedestrians,
McDonald said.
He gave an example in which a student
rode a bike across a pedestrian crosswalk
and was struck by a car.
“A bicycle has no rights when in a
pedestrian crosswalk; therefore the stu
dent on the bike was wrong,” he said. Had
the student gotten off the bike and walked
it across, then the pedestrian rights would
have applied to him, he said.
Capt. Elmer Schneider of the Univer
sity Police said when operating in the mall
areas and on sidewalks, bicycles should
travel at a safe speed, ride single file in
with the traffic flow, stop at all stop signs
and yield to all motor vehicles at intersec
tions or other traffic junctures where no
stop sign or other traffic control sign or
signal is posted. And most importantly,
they must give the right-of-way to pedest
rian traffic at all times.
He said in areas where bike lanes or
bike paths are available, bicycles are pro
hibited from riding in mall areas and on
sidewalks.
There are also problems with bicycles
being parked where they are prohibited.
Schneider said many people park their
bikes in areas which obstruct the normal
flow of traffic, such as in doorways, pas
sageways and ramps for the disabled.
“This is a very dangerous situation if a
building has to be evacuated,” Schneider
said. “These ramps are not bicycle ramps.
They were placed there for the handicap
ped and not for the use bicycles.”
But both Schneider and McDonald
agree that enforcement of bicycle regu
lations is difficult because it is almost im
possible to catch the offenders.
An officer on foot or in a car usually can
not catch a bicycle — it can easily cut be
tween buildings and get away, McDonald
said.
He said it is almost useless to give tick
ets to parked bicycles because few stu
dents register their bikes with the Univer
sity.
But McDonald said citations for moving
violations are occasionally issued to bicycle
riders caught breaking the rules.
The officer also has the right to issue a
Justice of the Peace citation if he feels that
the situation merits being recorded on the
violator’s permanent driving record (such
as in the case of a serious accident.)
Parker said he could see the banning of
bicycles from University mall areas and
sidewalks if the problem continues to get
worse.
“How could we really enforce some
thing like that, though?” he said. “It’s
going to have to be a self-policing type
thing.”
Aw, Mom!
/ith Halloween here, buying a suitable costume for trick-or-treating is
a matter of pressing importance. Tammy Burgess stands impatiently as
her mother, Mrs. Faye Burgess, passes judgment on the fit of Tammy’s
Bugs Bunny costume. BaUalion photo by Sam Stroder
Korean presidential aide arrested
in connection with assassination
Press Inlerml
IK-The U
Board of 0
hotball rati!
ites and vrosi
itheses (eijfc
»):M
federal judge appointed
s 1st education secretary
1 (8-0)
0(7-0)
Cal (1)
ite
Young
h
me
rest
rolina
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Shirley Hufstedler,
4, a Los Angeles federal appeals court
udge, has been chosen by President Car
er to become the first secretary of the
ifepartment of Education. The appoint
ment was approved Tuesday.
Ipften mentioned for posts in several
Democratic administrations, Hufstedler
said Monday, “I have intense concern
jabout the quality of education for all
jiericans, particularly those in primary
p secondary schools.
11 have devoted a great deal of my life to
ffiucation and have a great commitment to
education,” she said, adding she must
gm more about the agency before decid-
gwhat ideas to promote.
Created by Congress at the request of
Earter, the department was formed from
the Department of Health, Education and
elfare. HEW becomes the Department
nhanHIf °- health and Human Services. The new
nnariu agency takes effect in about five months.
JOWn Cili« u ^ te dl er became a state superior
, |ourt judge in 1961, and was named as an
[fliZaMfsociate justice of the state Court of Ap-
l r a * s * n 1966. Two years later. President
leenny l,yndon B. Johnson appointed her to a
qfl 7;|)IS. Circuit Court vacancy. In 1970 she
' was named to the 9th Circuit Court of Ap-
504 RUfll* Hals. She holds a law degree from Stan-
e lei
. >
ford University.
Her name has surfaced as a candidate to
become the first woman on the U. S. Su
preme Court, but she said Monday her
commitment was “to put every bit of
energy into trying to achieve the adminis
tration’s objectives in education.
“That’s enough to do without worrying
about a job I might have if it is to offered,
which is something that hasn’t occurred.”
While a number of persons were men
tioned for the job, the list was cut to five
names and finally to the judge and former
New Mexico Gov. Jerry Apodaca.
One source said Carter was dissatisfied
with Apodaca, a Democrat, after a meet
ing in which they discussed the new de
partment’s role.
The Los Angeles Times quoted an un
identified Carter campaign official as say
ing the White House got “very positive
feedback” on choosing Hufstedler from
the Southern California liberal Democrat
establishment.
“Her liberal decisions over the years
have been popular among civil rights types
— blacks, other minorities and women —
that make up the Democratic consti
tuency, and they are likely to be pleased
by the appointment,” the campaign source
said.
United Press International
SEOUL, South Korea — Army inves
tigators arrested a top presidential aide
who escaped unhurt from President Park
Chung-hee’s assassination and dozens of
other officials also suspected of being in
volved, sources close to the investigation
said Tuesday.
The arrests suggested far wider in
volvement in the slaying than originally
suspected.
The Martial Law Command announced
the arrest of Park’s chief secretary, who
was the fourth man seated at a dinner table
with Park when intelligence chief Kim
Jae-Kyu opened fire with a pistol on Fri
day, killing Park and a bodyguard.
Agents of Kim’s Korean CIA, allegedly
acting on his orders, then killed four other
presidential bodyguards and wounded a
fifth.
There was no official announcement
about the other arrests, but the sources
placed the number of suspects in deten
tion at between 30 and 50. Most, if not all,
are senior members of the Korean Central
Intelligence Agency, the sources said.
In a related development, other sources
said Kim left the KCIA annex where the
slayings took place and met with Army
Chief of Staff Gen. Chung SungHwa.
The sources said Kim and Chung then
met with top cabinet officials before the
intelligence chief was finally arrested,
hours after the murder of Park and five
bodyguards.
In other developments:
— Acting President Choi Kyuhah
named an acting KCIA head and held what
will become a daily meeting to discuss
internal and external security matters and
the nation’s economy, actions seen as at
tempts to show Choi’s control of the post
assassination situation.
— U.S. Ambassador to Korea William
Gleysteen labeled as “baloney and rub
bish” a report by communist Nort Korea’s
official radio that Gleysteen met Kim Jae-
kyu shortly before the assassination.
— U.S. officials said Washington has “a
very major interest in seeing this thing
hang together, for security reasons, for
economic reasons” and hopes whatever
Seoul government emerges from the
post-assassination crisis is as broadly based
as possible.
Earlier in the day, Choi named Lt. Gen.
Lee Hui-sung, 55, acting director of the
Korean Central Intelligence Agency.
In the waters off Korea, a U.S. Navy
task force led by an aircraft carrier pa
trolled the sea in a signal to communist
North Korea not to take any actions against
the south, where martial law is in force.
Gen. Chung Sung-hwa, the commander
responsible for enforcing the country’s
martial law, said in a statement his forces
will do their best to strengthen defenses
against communist North Korea, maintain
order at home and take all measures
needed to assure smooth daily life for the
nation.
Law requires jail for Torres felony
Civil rights violators resentenced
United Press International
HOUSTON — A federal judge, acting
under an appeals court order forbidding
probation, Tuesday resentenced three
former policemen to a year and a day in
prison for felony civil rights violations in
the drowning of a Mexican-American pris
oner.
Originally, the judge had ordered the
three former officers placed on probation
for conviction on the felony civil rights
charge.
U. S. District Judge Ross Sterling or
dered the sentences to run concurrently
with one-year sentences he gave them for
misdemeanor civil rights violations in the
May 5, 1977 death of Joe Campos Torres.
On Oct. 4, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals told Sterling the law required that
Terry Denson, 29, Steven Orlando, 24,
and Joseph Janish, 25, spend some time in
prison for the felony violations.
Sterling rejected an appeal by Justice
Department civil rights lawyer Brian
McDonald for “substantial periods of in
carceration,” which McDonald argued
would help prevent future police
violations of civil rights.
In effect. Sterling ordered the defen
dants to spend an additional day in prison
beyond the sentence they already had re
ceived.
In March 1978, Sterling sentenced the
three, convicted by a jury of misdemeanor
and felony civil rights violations, to one
year in prison for the misdemeanor. He
gave a 10-year suspended sentence in lieu
of five years probation for the felony.
Federal prosecutors appealed only the
felony sentencing and the New Orleans
appeals court ruled Sterling acted illegally
in granting suspended sentences and pro
bation for a felony civil rights violation
ending in the victim’s death.
Torres, 23, was found floating in Buffalo
Bayou downtown on May 8, 1977. Investi
gation disclosed he had been arrested
three days earlier on an intoxication com
plaint.
The three were convicted with the aid of
testimony from other officers granted im
munity or allowed to plead guilty to lesser
violations.
All of the defense attorneys indicated
the sentences would not be appealed and
speculated none of the defendants would
have to spend a full year in prison.
They said they did not know when the
defendants would surrender to federal au
thorities to start their prison terms.
-with
=a lculatof
^•arn
■cries.
are
r-ieswitH
sster
Memory
seven
\
-vvf '".IT •' "'V • '
I I
■ -
\ Parties are OK,
I spooks are out!
Joshua Constanzo, 4, seemed a
I little uneasy as he and Texas
A&M University sophomore
Kathy Bruinooge discussed a visit
to the “Haunted House” at the
Hospitality Committee’s Hallo
ween party for youngsters Tues
day (right). He convinced Kathy
||(far right) he really wasn’t in-
I terested in visiting any ghosts
l after all. See story, page 4.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
^ --y