At 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 22 I was traveling west on Cochran Street, just passing the Erringer Road intersection. Living on the east end of Simi Valley, I am not familiar with the smaller intersections in the west end area.

After going through the intersection of Callahan and Cochran, I realized that there were traffic lights at that intersection; however, they were not working and this was in the darkness of night. At that point, I realized that the whole area was dark; not even the streetlights were working.

Within seconds there was a motorcycle policeman on my bumper with his lights aglow. I told him that I didn’t realize that there were even traffic lights at that small intersection.

I then asked the officer why there wasn’t a patrolman at the intersection directing traffic. The officer’s response was, “Would you want to stand in the middle of an intersection in the dark to try to direct traffic?”

I know Simi Valley has trafficcontrol pickup trucks equipped with yellow flashing lights. Why weren’t they here?

I also asked if he could possibly put up some traffic flares that I know all officers carry, or he could have parked his flashing light motorcycle in the middle of the intersection to get people’s attention.

Instead, the officer chose to hide in the dark to issue tickets. This, to me, is putting profits before public safety.

By the way, this was my first traffic citation in 42 years of driving. Congratulations, officer, you finally got me.
Don Schafer
Simi Valley