Bob Levey
Washington Post, October 27, 1987:
Jo Hinkel of Northeast had just finished a day's work in the officeof volunteer services at the Air and Space Museum and was on her way home.It was 5:10 p.m. on Oct. 5 as she began to walk across Independence Avenuein front of the museum -- the green light in her favor, her body unmistakablyinside the crosswalk. She got three steps into the street when it happened.
"I heard some people shouting, 'Look out!' " Jo recalled."Then he ran right into me."
"He" was a bicycle messenger, of course. He was running ared light, of course. And he fled the scene without so much as asking Joif she was all right.
She wasn't.
Jo fractured her skull. She suffered a cut over her left eye that required10 stitches to close ("The doctor was nice about it," said 52-year-oldJo, who somehow still has a sense of humor about the incident. "Hesewed me up along my wrinkle line.") She received a mild concussion.She was still black and blue along her entire right side two weeks afterthe accident. She has a black left eye that looks as if it stopped a MikeTyson punch.
But the most gruesome injury may have been to Jo's glasses. Her plasticlenses both have huge gouges in them, caused by the messenger's helmetas it bashed her right in the face.
Jo Hinkel was taken to Capitol Hill Hospital by a kind-hearted cabbiewho saw the whole thing -- and who didn't charge for the ride. She missed10 days of work. She ran up more than $1,000 in medical bills, which shemust pay herself because she is a temporary employe and temporaries atthe museum don't get health insurance. If you have ever wanted to meetthe consummate innocent victim, ladies and gentlemen, Jo Hinkel is she.
But still I get mail from bike messengers telling me to back off myantimessenger crusade because I don't understand their problems.
Still I get calls from messengers who tell me that speed is the waythey make a living, and speed means having to run red lights.
Still I get speeches from messengers who recognize me on the streetand claim that my columns about them are somehow unfair.
I say unfair is what happened to Jo Hinkel.
I say cutting corners and saving time is illegal when it means ignoringred lights.
I say I understand the problems of messengers just fine. Their problemis that they think they're above the law -- and they're not.
And I say again: Get messengers off downtown streets. Get them off now.
A couple of weeks ago I told of a motorist who started to make a rightturn at 20th and I streets NW. Just as she began the turn, a bike messengertried to whip past her on the right. He had to brake very sharply to avoidan accident.
The close call was entirely the messenger's fault. But he cursed outthe lady in make-a-sailor-blush language, and smacked the roof of her carwith his heavy lock, causing a two-inch-deep dent. Then, being a courageous,upstanding, mature soul, like so many messengers, he took off.
At the time, I didn't know the woman's name. But I do now, because shejust wrote to me. She is S. Christine Pirkle of Northeast, and she tellsof a mess that went from bad to worse.
Christine had no idea how to find the messenger who had smashed herroof. So she decided to call every messenger service listed in the D.C.Yellow Pages. That would be a wild goose chase more often than not. Butthis time it wasn't. On the 11th call, Christine reached an agency whosephone-answerer immediately recognized the messenger from Christine's description.
The answerer said, yup, the guy who smacked your roof is the only messengerin downtown D.C. who wears an orange backpack. Best of all, the woman toldChristine where to find the guy.
Christine figured the cops would be delighted to receive this information.She figured wrong.
A succession of 2nd District cops "either laughed at me or shoutedat me as if I were the most stupid person in galatial history," saysChristine.
You what, lady? You want us to arrest a messenger with an orange backpack?You say he's the only messenger with an orange backpack in a city of 670,000people? No cop would so much as write down the information Christine wasoffering.
So Christine is out $700 for car repairs, and the cops won't do anythingabout it, even though Christine knows where to find the man responsible.
Somewhere around downtown, a messenger with an orange backpack is stillblithely doing his thing, when he should be doing time. And the cops won'tdo anything about it, even though Christine can close the case for them.
A guy who is vicious once could well be vicious twice. But the copswon't do anything, even though Christine can tell them where the guy works.
The cops need to do much, much better. But the key point is the oneI've made over and over again.
Get bike messengers out of downtown. Get them out now.
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