Traffic held hostage

Re “4-Hour Standoff Chokes Freeways,” March 9

It seems to me that local law enforcement has lost its collective mind. How can any rational person determine that it is in the public’s best interest to shut down seven miles of a critical freeway for half the business day for one person in an immobilized van? Please don’t give us that puff about public safety; one person died in an accident possibly resulting from this fiasco.

So here’s an idea: The next time this happens, get a forklift, pick up the vehicle and move it out of harm’s way. If law enforcement can get three armored vehicles around a van, surely they can armor a forklift.

THOMAS MICHAEL KELLEY

Newbury Park