Car Trouble

In response to "In Death's Random Path" (Jan. 18), I have a story that may be worth sharing. While driving from Claremont toward Los Angeles on Jan. 16, I was forced by car trouble to pull off the freeway. My engine died entirely at a deserted intersection in Pomona; I found a phone booth, called the Auto Club and returned to my car. A passing taxi stopped long enough to yell at me to get away immediately (I am white); the area was dangerous. Within minutes, a young African American man pulled alongside and said he was concerned because my warning lights weren't working: Would I like him to light a flare beside my car?

Mike Hanton's photo of mountains near Richfield, Utah, shows that there can be an upside to car trouble. As he was driving last year on Interstate 70 on a trip to Minnesota, the water pump in his 1992 Toyota Camry froze. "The car coasted for seven miles before coming to a stop," Hanton said. "This was the moment when I was stranded. It was beautiful. " The Santa Monica resident used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. View past photos we've featured . To upload your own, visit our reader travel photo gallery . When you upload your photo, tell us where it was taken and when.

Armed robbers early Sunday took more than $22,000 in cash, jewelry and clothing from a man who had stopped to change a flat tire on the Golden State Freeway near Gorman, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said. Charles Hastings, 32, of Van Nuys was about to change the tire near the Gorman freeway off-ramp at 3:40 a.m. when two men in a late-model sports car stopped on the freeway shoulder nearby.

You know what's expensive? Walnuts. I was picking up a few things at the store the other day and noticed that walnuts are now approximately the same price as gold nuggets. My wife, Posh, had plans to roll some walnuts and goat cheese into a pork loin and throw the whole shebang on the grill. It's a tasty main course, the kind that triggers food lust. Pork, cheese, walnuts, a few sprigs of rosemary -- how can you miss? Except we can no longer afford walnuts. "But isn't this walnut season?"

For more than a year, a team of Cal State Northridge engineering students worked feverishly on a prototype for a car of the future, one that would surpass all known achievements in fuel efficiency. They were racing against students from 11 other universities that are finalists this week in the Future Car Challenge, a Detroit car contest co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Big Three auto makers. Unfortunately, the Northridge entry didn't even make it to the Motor City.

Dear Street Smart: I was wondering why there are no call boxes in the median of the freeways. I see an awful lot of people stuck there. Rita Williams Rancho Santa Margarita Aside from certain spots in East Beirut, the median strip on a Southern California freeway is the most dangerous spot to be with a broken-down car. On most Orange County freeways, there's hardly room for a bicycle to park, let alone an automobile.

Tom Anderlik was a young man who couldn't resist helping someone with car trouble. It seemed that he was always late because he was stopping to help someone who was stranded, relatives say. Anderlik had just moved to his aunt's house in Oceanside several months ago from a small town in Washington, and his aunt says she kept warning her 19-year-old nephew not to do that in California.

News item: Baron Davis is held out of the starting lineup for being late to a UCLA shoot-around because he had car trouble. Question: Why is Baron Davis being punished? It's Jim Harrick's fault for giving him a piece of junk for a car. TONY SIRACUSA Pasadena

If you've got car trouble, you may want to turn to San Clemente High School students Henry Sieck and Tore Amato. They formed the winning team last week in a technology competition for Orange County high school students in which car troubles--ranging from incorrect tire pressure and lug nut torque to malfunctioning fuel-injection sensors--had to be identified within 90 minutes. The contest sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors awarded $5,000 in scholarships.

CAR TROUBLE: How New Technology, Clean Fuels, and Creative Thinking Can Revive the Auto Industry and Save Our Cities From Smog and Gridlock by Steve Nadis and James J. MacKenzie (Beacon Press: $27.50 cloth, $12 paper; 229 pp.). Books sponsored by institutions usually suffer from two related maladies: first, the need to be comprehensive, and second, studied prose.

Gabe Pruitt and Lodrick Stewart showed up a tad late to the Sports Arena on Thursday night. Pruitt's car had a flat tire. No doubt California would like to have slashed all four. Pruitt and Stewart put on a show against the Golden Bears, leading the Trojans out of the Pacific 10 Conference basement, while ushering Cal into it, with an impressive 83-66 victory before 3,127. "It was kinda scary; I had never had a flat tire before," said Pruitt, who was giving Stewart a ride to the game.

Re "Three Wise Men and Their Journey to Buy Gifts" [Dec. 9]: Chris Erskine is not alone with the transmission and dryer breaking down at the same time. At the risk of sounding very L.A. and "Grove-ish" .... Mercury is in retrograde until Sunday, and these are the things that go wrong during this period. Consider backing up your computer and avoid traveling until after Sunday. Just thought you should know. Stefani Sherwin Pacific Palisades Send letters to Los Angeles Times, Home section, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA, 90012, or e-mail home@latimes.

Orlando Esquivel and Javier Rivera saw the family standing next to their car on the side of Baja California's coastal highway. Lights flashing, they pulled over and jumped out of their bright green Dodge Ram. Esquivel squatted down to replace the car's flat tire while Rivera shielded the family from traffic. Minutes later, the men were finished, back in their truck and headed down the road, without having received even a peso.

In 1989, Ricky Rudd won the first NASCAR race at Sears Point Raceway, one of two road courses on the Winston Cup schedule. On Sunday, Rudd won the first NASCAR race at Infineon Raceway, as of Saturday the new name for the picturesque, two-mile hillside circuit in Sonoma Valley that has been called Sears Point all these years. It wasn't easy, but it was unexpected.

It is so nice to have the opportunity to award kudos to our police and other protection agencies, so I wish to tell you about a flat tire turning into a pleasant experience. On Nov. 11 about 1 p.m., making the transition from California 23 to the 101 Freeway just west of the Hampshire exit, a man and a woman in another car sounded their horn repeatedly to let me know the tire was going flat. My passenger urged me to get to a freeway phone, which I was able to do. The space off the freeway was adequate to be out of harm's way and I received an immediate response when I picked up the receiver.

News item: Baron Davis is held out of the starting lineup for being late to a UCLA shoot-around because he had car trouble. Question: Why is Baron Davis being punished? It's Jim Harrick's fault for giving him a piece of junk for a car. TONY SIRACUSA Pasadena

Aman attempting to cross the southbound Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley was killed when he was struck by a car in the fast lane, the California Highway Patrol reported Monday. Daniel Rodriguez, 23, of North Hollywood was killed at 11:40 p.m. Sunday just south of the Laurel Canyon Boulevard exit, officials said. The driver of the car, William Upfold, 30, of Madera, Calif., was not cited, officials said.

A pedestrian attempting to cross California 67 about two miles south of Poway Road was struck and killed Monday evening by a southbound car, authorities said. James Martin Florence, 29, of Santee, died at the scene of the 5:15 p.m. accident, San Diego County Deputy Coroner Chuck Bolton said. William Brownlow, of Lakeside, told authorities he was traveling south at 55 m.p.h. when a pedestrian ran across the roadway in front of his car, California Highway Patrol spokesman Jim Logan said.

Eighty-one-year-old Lillian Folk was getting ready for bed Sunday night when she heard banging on her back door. Folk tiptoed to the kitchen and saw a young man looking in the window and banging on her back door. "I just ran out the front door, across the street to the deputy's house screaming," she said Monday. Barefoot, but still in her Sunday clothes, Folk ran to the home of off-duty Ventura County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Lengyel.

In response to "In Death's Random Path" (Jan. 18), I have a story that may be worth sharing. While driving from Claremont toward Los Angeles on Jan. 16, I was forced by car trouble to pull off the freeway. My engine died entirely at a deserted intersection in Pomona; I found a phone booth, called the Auto Club and returned to my car. A passing taxi stopped long enough to yell at me to get away immediately (I am white); the area was dangerous. Within minutes, a young African American man pulled alongside and said he was concerned because my warning lights weren't working: Would I like him to light a flare beside my car?