by Dogpatch 16 Replies latest jw friends
Occasionally I go with friends to visit the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, and it is a good area to hang out in the summer in the evening. Some 80 year old man just plowed through the crowd in a car for 2.5 blocks and ran over 8 people, injuring about 30+ others. A two-year old baby was killed. How sad!
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/16/farmers.market.crash/index.html
Randy Watters
this is so awful.
I'm very interested in hearing the cause. Elderly driving is a sore topic for me. My Grandfather at 76 is still driving & if his Dr. notified the state, his license would be revoked (he has fallen asleep hundreds of times while at the wheel and run off the road) Thankfully no one has been injured by his driving - but he has no business driving.
closer
Quote from the article:
Butts said the man drove his 1992 mid-size Buick "at least at a moderate rate of speed" for three blocks along the market street, which was filled with pedestrians, "striking dozens of people." The car stopped only after a pedestrian was thrown into the air and landed on the windshield of the vehicle, Butts said.
The accident occurred at 1:47 p.m. (4:47 p.m. EDT), Butts said.
Butts said officers have interviewed more than 100 witnesses who give conflicting reports regarding the driver's demeanor at the time of the incident.
"So now we're attempting to determine whether this was a straight accident -- medically related -- criminal negligence or criminal homicide," Butts said.
One witness said, "He was not only speeding, he was accelerating."
Sure doesn't sound like an "accident" to me.
Thanks Randy
Gumby
I just watched the update on the news they said there was "possible" meds in his system they are also checking his medical history to see if he should have even been issued a drivers license. The man is 86 and didn't seem to know what happened. They just released him.
The distance he went before the car finally stopped "may" have been effected by the airbag in the car going off causing him to panic even more on top of being confused in the first place.
Horrible tragedy.
Recurring Themes America's most underrated highway safety problem appears to be senior drivers who mistakenly step on the accelerator instead of the brake: Henry Clax, 78, Jersey City, N.J. (hit three lampposts and then 13 people coming out of a Jehovah's Witnesses assembly, April); Marcella Stahly, 63, Albuquerque (tore through the front wall of a fruit market, March); Ms. Nahid Nainzadeh, 64, New Fairfield, Conn. (plowed halfway into a bank, April); Leonard Borok, 81, Coral Springs, Fla. (crashed through the front window of a post office, May); Waunona Reed, 85, Crescent City, Ore. (struck 26 people leaving an Assembly of God church, January). [Newsday-AP, 4-19-03] [Albuquerque Journal, 3-27-03] [Danbury News-Times, 4-19-03] [South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 5-6-03] [Eureka Times-Standard, 1-5-03]
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html
These poor people. Both articles
Very sad! Goes to show how unpredictable life is.
It's so sad, but probably there is no apparent reason for it. But then again, is there a reason for all the loss of life in Iraq, or was President Bush "confused."
My husband's aunt is 86 or so. Family finally convinced her to stop driving several years ago...after she hit another car again. (She hasn't injured anyone, however.)
She fought tooth & nail against them. They finally just sold her car. I think she saw it as her link to personal freedom.
Her insurance company saw her as a threat to humanity and them.
Thankfully, my grandparents knew when they couldn't safely drive anymore and took themselves off of the road.
Lots of people won't. The laws have to get better on this matter. Man, nine people killed, 14 critically injured. Because a proud old man wouldn't admit that he was a little 'touched' in his old age.
Horrible.
ash
