Posted on 10/22/2005 2:10:25 PM PDT by twippo
ST. PETERSBURG -- A 93-year-old driver apparently suffering from dementia fatally struck a pedestrian, then continued driving through a toll booth with the man's body on his windshield, police said.
Ralph Parker of Pinellas Park drove for 3 miles Wednesday night after striking the 52-year-old pedestrian with his gold 2002 Chevrolet Malibu, severing the man's right leg, police said.
A toll taker on the Sunshine Skyway saw the body stuck through Parker's windshield and notified police, Traffic Homicide Investigator Michael Jockers said.
Authorities did not identify the pedestrian.
Parker was hospitalized overnight with minor scrapes, and was expected to be taken to an elder care facility, Jockers said.
Charges were not likely to be filed, because Parker did not appear to know what had happened, where he was nor the correct date, said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney's Office.
"He may have somewhere in his mind have realized it was a crash, but immediately forgot about it," Jockers said.
Police took Parker's license, which he renewed in 2003.
"That was the one thing he had, to get in his car and just drive for the sheer enjoyment of driving," Jockers said. Parker lived alone after his wife died in 1998, according to authorities.
A spokesman for the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said the agency would conduct its own inquiry into whether Parker, who otherwise had a clean driving record, should have had a license.
Seniors age 80 or older must pass only a vision test when renewing a Florida driver's license.
What was a pedestrian doing on a toll road?
thats the prettiest bug i ever seen
I think that was Jack Handey's "Deep Thoughts" series that was on "Saturday Night Live" years ago.
That's why I haven't posted much in the three months I've been here. Information comes out so fast on the web that it's hard to be the first one to get a story out.
DWS (Driving while senile.) Sad.
I want one! No, I mean a pair .. err .. the CAR! That's right, I'm in love with her.... car.
You're likely unaware that FReep's "Search Thingie", which has always sucked to begin with, is down due to technical probs.
It'd probably be best for you to just chill, read the threads, and resist that itchy trigger finger.
Having worked Alzheimer's patients, I can believe it. Both that he would get in the car, and that he would not remember the accident.
I'm so old that nuthin' itches anymore! Damn !!! *S*
Have a great fall weekkend, Fellow Freepers!
Boortz lost me as a listener one day early in the week when he was blasting Sarah Palin as unelectable because of the "goof" she made about Paul revere, of course it was Boortz who was wrong, and then blasted anyone who who disagreed that homosexuality was not genetic, completely ignoring the possibility of conditioning as a child and the choice of not acting on one's desires.
Maybe he was just having a bad day but he certainly lost me. I have to change stations to miss him but I will.
“Oh, is that frowned upon here?”
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