MAN'S SHARP EYES HELP PROTECT KIDS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Every weekday morning, Al Goldstein walks his great-granddaughter, Robin Young, to school, then returns in the afternoon to walk her home.

It's about a mile from his home to Chatsworth Elementary School, and Al isn't making the walk for his health, or the chance to spend quality time with his 11-year-old great-granddaughter, although that's kind of nice, he admits.

No, 77-year-old Al Goldstein's making the four-mile trek, five days a week, because he's scared.

Scared of what Capt. Greg Meyer, head of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division, has dubbed everybodysinahurry.com.

``That's the environment we live in,'' Meyer says. ``Everybody's in a hurry. And a lot of drivers going through school zones seem to be more interested in where they're going than in the safety of the kids trying to get to school.''

His traffic officers know it. The school police know it. Crossing guards, school principals, teachers and parents and grandparents, like Al Goldstein, know it.

But you know who doesn't know it? The everybodysinahurry.commers. They don't know it. Or they just don't care.

``I've watched drivers roll down their windows and scream at the crossing guards because they had to screech to a stop at a crosswalk and missed the light at Devonshire Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard,'' Al says.

So, he hangs around a few minutes after getting his great-granddaughter to school - providing an extra pair of eyes for Randy Chester and the other crossing guards.

``Unless you're made of stone, you can't help but feel for these crossing guards,'' says Al, a member of the school's leadership council.

``It's very scary to stand in the crosswalk and watch as a large SUV comes at you and jams on the brakes, stopping within inches of the crosswalk.

``We've been very fortunate at Chatsworth Elementary that, as a result of several diligent crossing guards, no child or person has been injured.''

But how long is that good fortune at Chatsworth and all the elementary schools in the Valley going to last when the cars get bigger and faster, and the drivers dumber and more distracted?

So what are we going to do about these everybodysinahurry.commers?

The police can only do so much. Meyer sends officers to schools to slow things down, but the department doesn't have the manpower to cover every spot.

He holds safety meetings with school personnel and parents, but guess who doesn't show up? Yeah, the everybodysinahurry.commers. They're too busy getting someplace else.

The city's Department of Transportation is trying to help. It's given video cameras to parking enforcement officers to they can record and cite dangerous and illegal traffic maneuvers around the schools.

But the news is not good. A lot of the people getting those surprise tickets in the mail are the parents of elementary school kids themselves.

``They're double parking and dropping their kids off in the middle of a busy, congested street, like that's safe,'' Meyer says.

Al and I watched a half-dozen drivers Friday afternoon blatantly hold up traffic and make illegal left-hand turns coming out of the school parking lot so they could make the light at Devonshire and Topanga.

So what are we suppose to do? Short of forming a vigilante posse, dragging the everybodysinahurry.commers out of their cars and flogging some sense into them with their own cell phones, I'm not sure what the answer is.

If you've got any suggestions let me know. Al's feet are starting to hurt.

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Photo:

Al Goldstein escorts his great-granddaughter, Robin Young, to school as Chatsworth Park Elementary, where reckless drivers sometimes endanger students.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer