The Weekly Newspaper of Manhattan Beach
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 Vol. 11, No. 10 October 5, 2017
Inside
This Issue
Certified and Licensed
Professionals...................7
Classifieds............................2
Entertainment......................6
Finance..................................4
Food.......................................7
Looking Up...........................2
Pets............................. 11 - 12
Politically Speaking............5
Real Estate.................. 8 - 10
Seniors..................................2
Sports....................................3
Weekend
Forecast
Library Holds Historic Remembrance
Drivers Flunk at Safety Around Area Schools
See Driver Safety, page 4
Friday,
October 6
Sunny
74˚/61˚
Saturday,
October 7
Sunny
78˚/61˚
Sunday,
October 9
Partly
Cloudy
74˚/62˚
To honor Veteran’s Day the Manhattan Beach Library is showing an overview of a part of World War II. More information is below. Shown: A torpedoed Japanese destroyer Yamakaze sinking on June,
25, 1942. Provided by Manhattan Beach Library.
By Rob McCarthy
South Bay schools rank dangerously low
in traffic safety because of distracted driving
and parents’ refusal to use designated dropoff
zones, according to a data-analytics firm
recently featured on the CBS Evening News.
San Francisco-based Zendrive gave the
majority of South Bay campuses a “D” in
its “School Safety Snapshot,” which the
company released as students and teachers
headed back to school in August. Zendrive
compiled data taken from phone apps of
drivers using roads near public and private
schools in South Bay and Los Angeles
County, and gave each campus a letter grade
ranging from “A” to “F.” Cell phone use by
drivers, hard stops and quick acceleration in
the vicinity of a campus resulted in a lower
grade on the Zendrive scale.
“The roads around your kid’s school aren’t
as safe as you think,” the Zendrive project
team said after studying driver performance
data around 1,768 schools in Los Angeles
County.
Three schools in Inglewood received
a “C minus”--the highest grade given to
any South Bay campus. ICEF Inglewood
Middle and Elementary Charter academies
topped the list of local schools, along with
Inglewood Christian School. St. Bernard in
Westchester also got a “C minus” and each
school benefited from nearby drivers not
using cell phones while behind the wheel,
according to Zendrive.
Zendrive says it embarked on the project to
protect children while making drivers aware
of the consequences of not paying attention
to the road. “As kids are increasingly getting
to school on foot, bike, and bus, it’s on us
to take responsibility for their safety when
driving near schools,” it said.
The dangers of striking a pedestrian or
being involved in a crash are higher in the
2-to-5 p.m. drive time, Zendrive reported.
Being on the road between 4 and 5 p.m.
carries the highest risk. Another pair of
sobering statistics: crashes are the leading
causing of death for U.S. teens and schools
in urban areas are most dangerous.
Cell phone use while driving increases the
chance of a crash by 20 times, according
to the survey. While driver behavior was
responsible for the low marks throughout
the South Bay, populated metro areas were
routinely downgraded in the survey results
because of higher traffic. The Zendrive project
team awarded one California school in
rural Siskiyou County its top-safety rating.
Bessie Carmichael Schools in San Francisco
was named among the most dangerous in
America because of distraction and disregard
for school zone safety.
Not every school was included on Zendrive’s
report due to insufficient data, though the
company promises to update the school safety
snapshot as more data becomes available.
The South Bay schools and districts that
made the grade on Zendrive’s back-to-school
snapshot were:
El Segundo: D- for El Segundo High
School, Arena High School, El Segundo
Middle School and El Segundo Unified
School District offices. The bright spot: low
cell phone use around them.
Hawthorne: D for Lawndale High School,
with high cell phone use. D for Leuzinger
High School with moderate cell phone use.
D- for Centinela Valley High School with
moderate cell phone activity.
Inglewood: D- at Inglewood High School,
low cel -phone activity; D+ for Animo
Inglewood Charter High School, moderate
cell phones; C- with low cell phone activity
at ICEF Inglewood Middle and Elementary
Charters, and Inglewood Christian School.
D at Inglewood Continuation High School
with low cell phones. D for Hillcrest High
School, also minimal cell phone usage.
“Silent Running: The Submarine War Against
Japan” at Manhattan Beach Library
In honor of upcoming Veterans Day,
come to the Manhattan Beach Library on
Monday, October 30th, 2017 at 6:00 PM
for “Silent Running: The Submarine War
Against Japan,” a brief historical overview
of an exciting but often overlooked part
of World War II.
In this program, Manhattan Beach resident
and amateur historian Rick Farrell,
himself the son of a WWII submarine
commander, will lead a talk and Q&A
about the United States’ submarine
campaign against Japanese shipping
and the Imperial Japanese Navy during
the Pacific War. Following that will be
the screening of rare footage, taken by
actual submarine commanders, of a sub
task force operating in the Sea of Japan
in 1945.
This event is free and registration is
not required.
Manhattan Beach Library is part of the
County of Los Angeles Public Library,
and is located at 1320 Highland Ave.,
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. For more
information, please call 310545-8595 or
visit the library’s website at colapublib.
org •