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Health & Fitness

Charity Solicitations in Traffic Unlawful, Smacked Down by Authorities

In the earlier days of Upper Saint Clair Patch, I wrote in opposition to the practice of charity drives being conducted through having solicitors weave in and out of traffic as they hold buckets or cans into which donations are to be placed.  My opinion caused me to be derided by many.

Today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a front-page story, "Authorities Put a Lid on Canning (traffic solicitations for money)", which notes, "Despite a state law prohibiting pedestrians from standing on roadways to solicit contributions from passing motorists, thousands do it every year."

On Saturday, 19 October, on Route 19 at Mitchell's Corners, I was driving in the right curb lane heading north.  A young lady solicitor was between my vehicle and the vehicle to the left of me, collecting money from its passenger.  The light turned green before she could return to the side of the road.  If the solicitor did not dodge the traffic which, of course, began to move, she could easily have been struck. Whose fault would such a preventable accident have been? Could she have asserted a right to weave in and out of moving traffic?

I wonder what the result of a poll would be which asked, "Is it important to you when you travel in your vehicle that there be solicitors coming up to the window to attempt to pressure you into contributing to their cause?"

If stores wish to have solicitors at their entrances, a successful method of collection for the Salvation Army for decades, that is fine, but the law can and should be enforced against those who dangerously clog our roadways.  

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