Plot

This "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

In this MGM short film, part of the Theater of Life Series, an Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle Sergeant reflects on the growing traffic levels on the nation's roads. People drive further and faster than they ever have. People are impatient and don't give way to pedestrians, leading to frazzled nerves all-round. Accidents occur regularly leading not only to costly damaged cars but also to loss of lives.—garykmcd

One hundred people die and another twenty-five hundred are injured in traffic accidents every day in the United States, with Los Angeles the worst metropolitan area contributing to these statistics. Los Angeles Police Sgt. Charles Reineke provides his on-the-job perspective of the Los Angeles area motorist as a highway patrolman. The advent of the automobile age has brought with it a sense of freedom and progress. That freedom has also led to a "me against the world" attitude by some drivers, that "world" often including police officers who are seen as impeding on that freedom in upholding the law. That attitude has also led to increased frayed nerves as motorists get into more and more altercations with other motorists and other users of the roads. That attitude often does not change until the motorist, who believes he/she is a good driver and others are always at fault, faces personal tragedy, sometimes in the form of being involved in an accident that leads to one of those twenty-five hundred injuries or worse one of those one hundred deaths. Every motorist has to take personal responsibility for his/her actions behind the wheel.—Huggo

This "Theater of Life" series short looks at traffic problems in Los Angeles, California, as described and experienced by Sgt. Charles Reineke, a traffic enforcement officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.—David Glagovsky <dglagovsky@verizon.net>