Who Will Scream for Ice Cream? : Girl’s Accident Prompts a Call by Flores for Curbing Vendor’s Trucks

City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, reacting to an accident in which a 6-year-old girl’s leg was broken, proposed Wednesday that the city consider more regulation or even an outright ban on ice cream trucks that traditionally have meandered through residential streets.

“They say anything fun is fattening or dangerous,” said Flores. And unfortunately that truism even applies to the neighborhood ice cream man, she added.

She introduced the motion after a Wilmington girl was injured in a double hit-and-run. She had chased, like children often do, the alluring tinkle of an ice cream truck’s bells and was struck in the street by both the truck and a second vehicle.

There was little about the incident that was unusual, police said.

“The kids get excited and dart into the street,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Bob Jimenez, who has investigated accidents involving ice cream trucks, including the recent Wilmington incident. “It happens with some regularity,” he said.

Carson adopted a ban three years ago, after a young girl was killed in an accident involving an ice cream truck, according to Mayor Pro Tem Kay Calas. And rather than running the City Council out of town, the community “was quite happy” with the ban, Calas said.

In nearby Lynwood, however, angry “people and kids” as they were described, didn’t take the declaration of a cold war with good humor. They signed a petition to protest an ice cream truck ban adopted in that city in 1985.

Even though the big fleets of Good Humor trucks that introduced generations to the sport of chasing the ice cream man are long gone, scores of independent dealers are keeping the tradition alive and kids continue to scream all summer long for ice cream.

“The problem is, we really don’t have quiet residential streets any more,” said Richard McCaughey, a legislative analyst who helped draft the Los Angeles motion.

McCaughey said the idea of a ban has been considered from time to time, “but it’s been a sacred cow. It’s like motherhood, apple pie and baseball.”

But Flores said the time has come to take a hard look at the issue.

“I’ve been concerned for quite some time and seen some close calls,” said Flores. “And then came the Wilmington case.”

On Monday, a 6-year-old ran across Marine Street in Wilmington section of Los Angeles to join her 10-year-old sister, who was lined up with other neighborhood kids at an ice cream truck, according to Detective Jimenez.

Without warning, the driver began to back up the truck, knocking the little girl down, the detective said. The driver then pulled away, apparently unaware of what had happened. Then a second vehicle hit the girl, who was still on the ground, and that driver sped off, according to Jimenez. Police were searching Wednesday for the driver of the ice cream truck and have questioned a suspect about the second alleged hit-and-run vehicle.

“She’s going to make it,” said Jimenez of the injured girl. “But we have these (accidents) happening all over the city.”

Flores specifically has asked the city attorney to review the practice of selling ice cream from roving trucks, examine existing regulations and then make proposals that she anticipates could range from tightening controls to an outright ban.

Flores aides said they were concerned that many operators are not properly insured, are not licensed with the county health department and park in illegal and dangerous locations.

Communities which have sought to deal with these problems have split on what tack to take.

While Carson and Lynwood went with a ban, Santa Ana chose to regulate the business.

In 1984, the Santa Ana city council--prompted by a fatal accident--adopted an ordinance that required ice cream truck operators to carry $1 million in liability insurance, register with the city and obtain a permit and provide photographs and fingerprints to police for background checks. The measure also prohibits ice cream truck operators from broadcasting music that lures children to their trucks.