A letter from the Coroner

Dear Mr. Girardot,
I am writing to clarify some information posted in your Blog regarding the bus accident in the City of Walnut on 10/26/2007. You make mention in your Blog about the arrival time/response of the Coroner. The reason I am writing is that one of my responsibilities is to try to get the best possible scene response of Coroner personnel and one of the most frequently asked questions I get is “Why does it take the Coroner so long to get there?”
In this particular case, Ms. Meza was pronounced dead at 1455 hours. The Coroner was notified of the death at 1540 hours. The Coroner assigned the call to a Coroner Investigator at 1555 hours. The Coroner Investigator arrived on scene at 1727 hours. The Coroner Investigator completed his scene investigation and departed the scene at 1850 hours.
It should be noted that we have to commute in the same Friday rush-hour traffic as everyone else, which we did in this case. In most cases, our response time is within an hour to most places in Los Angeles County. Traffic, traffic accidents, bad weather, law enforcement activity and other wonders that make Los Angeles the great place that it is hinders our response time to a scene just like everyone else’s drive time home.
Sincerely,

Craig R. Harvey, F-ABMDI
Chief Coroner Investigator & Chief of Operations
Department of Coroner
County of Los Angeles