Posted on 06/14/2009 6:27:46 PM PDT by raccoonradio
The 4-year-old Stoughton girl run down in a crosswalk by an elderly driver yesterday has died, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating’s office announced this morning.
Diya Patel was hospitalized in a coma at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, but did not survive the night after being hit on her scooter by an 89-year-old woman at the wheel of a Toyota Camry on Washington Street in Stoughton late yesterday morning.
According to Keating’s spokesman David Traub, the collision remains under investigation by the Stoughton Police Department with assistance from state police, and no charges against the driver have been announced.
We got to do something about these old people driving Test them once a year or every 6 months this is crazy
Talk radio in Boston lately has had discussion of the issue of elderly drivers. While many older drivers can be fine,
there have been incidents of “mistaking the gas pedal for
the brake”, etc. A couple years ago a doctor working in a hospital was killed by an elderly driver who smashed into
the office. Recently at a WalMart, a couple (aged 90 and 93)
were in a car which the driver crashed through the main door
(despite four huge poles set in front of the store), and a
1 yr old was in critical condition.
When do you “take the keys away”?
My own Dad is 88 and can no longer drive. I go down to Cape Cod (90 mi. away) once a month or so to help him shop, etc. (other siblings do their share too).
She's old and so she wasn't responsible... so let's get back to the 89-year-old shooter at the Holocaust Museum who, while irrelevently Democrat, was a deliberate representative of the extreme right-wing...
You take a test when you’re 17 or so in Massachusetts and don’t need to be tested after that. There has been a proposal to require those over 85 to take another test.
As the talk shows have pointed out, the elderly vote and in huge numbers. Thus the legislature is loath to enact such laws...
Dennis Miller on his “White Album”, 1988: “I think you shouldn’t be allowed to drive if you’re old enough to
remember when there weren’t any cars.”
When they stop being the wealthiest age group and also stop voting with the highest turnout.
So you do think that only “old” people hit people in cross walks? What is old?
I am not saying there should not be more testing, I think its interesting that when an “old” person has an accident it becomes a national issue, when there are dozens of accidents everyday that barely get local coverage.
Agreed.
I am a nurse, and I deal with the elderly every day of the week. Less than 5% of the 80+ year old patients I see have their full mental and physical faculties intact.
Driving a vehicle requires both sound mental faculties and physical reaction times; both sadly lacking in the senior-citizen set.
Fortunately I don’t like to drive all that much so when its time for me to quit I will without a fight. Mostly I like to creep along the backroads anyway.
My dads dad hit a guy he died later that night of a heart attack we took his car away my dad stopped by his own accord at 80 They are gonna have to pry my car keys from my cold dead hands
I hit a child when I was in my mid 20s and it shook me up pretty good. The kid survived and I didn’t get a ticket but I’m super cautious where kids are likely to be.
Fortunately that totaled the old car she was driving so we got her off the road
Maybe we should wait and see when there’s more details about this accident. The cops haven’t given her a ticket yet, so maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t her fault.
sorry to hear that i plowed into a cops personal car that was parked a week after i got my license
Just wondering:
An older person commits a horrible tort. IF she were sued, she’d have to be very rich or very well insured not to end up bankrupt.
Old, bankrupt — not a pretty picture.
So for many older people, it might be good to point out what the costs of failing to act their age might be — to wit, dying neglected in a charity or state run old-age home.
Scares the heck out of me, anyway.....
Once you are on social security (no matter what age, I don’t care), if you have no known eye or brain problems, tested every year. Just like a colonoscopy. If you do have eye problems and/or brain problems, then every 6 months.
And I am not talking necessarily about it having to be the exact same test they give every time you renew the license. But if the person giving the test notices problems, they could then be able to require the person to take an official driving test and determine if they can keep their license or not.
Southpark had a dead-on (no pun intended) little episode on this.
We got to do something about these old people driving Test them once a year or every 6 months this is crazy
I absolutely agree with you.
Looking outside my window the older neighbor across the street has almost gotten in several accidents pulling in and out of her driveway. Very close calls. She's a menace on the road should not be driving.
A couple years ago she "accidentally" rammed into a parked semi totaling her car.
RIP.
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