Newspaper vendor killed in west Houston
The Chronicle reports that another street vendor has been killed while peddling newspapers, this time in west Houston:
A 70-year-old man selling newspapers by the side of the road died Wednesday after a car struck him near the intersection of S. Dairy Ashford and Westheimer, police said.
A man was driving a white Chevrolet Camaro north in the center lane of S. Dairy Ashford about 4:15 p.m. when he lost control of his car and swerved into the left lane across the median and struck a white Saturn sedan that was stopped waiting in the left turn lane, said Sgt. L.H. Leffler of HPD.
The Camaro then struck the man selling newspapers in the median and hit a tan Toyota SUV before coming to rest on top of the median, Leffler said.
The man, whose identity has not been released, was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The headline identifies the street vendor as a "pedestrian," which isn't quite right. He was a newspaper street vendor.
The story also reports that the vendor was selling newspapers "by the side of the road." Later, the report is that he was "selling newspapers in the median." It's unclear why Chronicle copy editors don't catch such discrepancies before stories are posted.
We assume that the newspaper being sold was the Chronicle (we've never seen the New York Times or Wall Street Journal distributed this way in Houston). After this latest fatality, we urge the Chronicle to abandon the dangerous and annoying practice of employing street vendors to distribute its newspaper in the middle of busy streets. Streets are dangerous enough for Houston drivers, and are no place for impromptu markets, no matter how badly the Chronicle's circulation figures continue to sag.
PREVIOUSLY: Chronicle vendor killed in unsafe work environment, Chron sues for constitutional right to sell papers in streets.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/23/07 07:01 PM | Houston Miscellany | Print | Comments (17)
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