Columnist Susan Snyder: Taking a step for safety

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 9:24 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Could the end be near for the "universe of one"?

Last week, a day after jurors convicted a San Francisco woman of murder because her dogs mauled another woman to death, legal experts told a newspaper reporter that the issue wasn't about dogs as much as it was about public safety.

The verdict, they told the San Francisco Chronicle, will make it easier to drop the boom on people whose disregard for such safety leads to another person's death.

Marjorie Knoller was convicted of second-degree murder and her husband, Robert Noel, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter because the large dogs in their care attacked and killed their neighbor Diane Whipple in January 2001.

In the conviction's aftermath legal experts said the ruling could prompt authorities to file charges more often in all kinds of cases involving public safety, from drunken driving to industrial accidents.

"Nothing will bring Diane Whipple back. But hopefully this will send a message, across the country, across the world, about how people should regard other people," San Francisco Assistant District Attorney James Hammer said in the newspaper article.

Makes you wonder how deep this will reach. I'd pretty much given up on the people who speed in school zones because their kid, who goes to another school, is late.

I considered a lost cause the dorks who park in Summerlin's bike lanes under the "no parking" signs each weekend to avoid walking to parks that were built so they would walk there rather than drive.

And we'll not even talk about the people who stop their cars dead-center in crosswalks -- such as the one at Green Valley Parkway and Pebble Road -- while people are walking in them.

I figured we'd all just have to endure these random acts of carelessness by those who don't mean to do any harm because they don't mean to do anything, except as they please, no matter who else it puts at risk.

Maybe this verdict will send a message that puts some meaning back into "personal responsibility."

Then again, maybe not:

"I wouldn't mind paying the medical bills or risk being sued and all that," a California dog owner was quoted as saying. "But I don't think I should be held responsible for the actions of my dog."

Nah. Send the dog to jail -- and the owner to Mars.

Here's a little hope: Fifth graders at the Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain are collecting unwanted cell phones for recycling. (I'll donate the one being used by the woman who nearly ran over me while I was riding my bike Tuesday morning.)

The phones are turned over to a company called Collective Good. The company refurbishes them for families in Central America, some of whom are obtaining phone service for the first time through this program, according to information provided by the school. In addition the company donates anywhere from 50 cents to $8 to the Lied Animal Shelter in Las Vegas for each donated phone.

Students have collected about a third of 1,000 phones they hope to amass by June. People who want to donate one can call 949-3600.

Give generously. Give the one your boss uses.