"Stop me before I kill again!"
Posted on 11/24/2005 5:43:29 AM PST by devane617
PINELLAS PARK - Margaret Beyer and Bette Broadbent were best friends for years and spent recent weeks sprucing up Beyer's house.
But on Wednesday, as the two were delivering a load of mulch to her house, Beyer hit the accelerator too hard and backed her Toyota station wagon through the garage and into her kitchen, killing Broadbent, 67.
"It's a tragic event," said Pinellas Park police Capt. Michael Haworth.
Beyer, 77, "is pretty shook up," said her sister Kittie Betterton. "That was her best friend."
"I just feel chills," said neighbor Crystal Watson, 28, who rushed over from her house to help. "This is the day before Thanksgiving."
Neighbors said Beyer and Broadbent had been working together on cleanup projects at Beyer's home, 3808 90th Terrace N. Beyer was in the yard so much that neighbor Joe Dougherty teased her about how much she liked to play in the dirt.
On Wednesday morning Beyer was backing her Toyota into the driveway, and Broadbent was standing behind to guide her. That's when Beyer mistakenly accelerated, police said.
Traffic homicide investigator Michael Piacenza said Beyer said it was an accident. She was taking heart medication at the time, but nothing narcotic, he said. He said there was nothing to indicate she was driving recklessly. Therefore, no charges are pending.
"My sister doesn't know what happened," Betterton said Wednesday morning, adding "she's not in a fog, she's perfectly coherent."
Beyer could not be reached for comment.
After the accident, Watson said, "I heard the crash and immediately ran over there."
She saw Beyer's Toyota smashed through a wall and into the house. Debris covered the Toyota. Not realizing another woman was present, Watson first focused on Beyer and tried to calm her down.
Beyer seemed to be in shock, Watson said. "She just kept saying she's never done that in her life," Watson said.
Then Watson saw Broadbent, partly covered in debris. She immediately tried to help. "I didn't feel a pulse. She was not breathing." So Watson ran back to her house a few doors down, called 911, and returned. Broadbent was taken to Northside Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Dougherty said he feels for his neighbor, Beyer. "It's absolutely a shame. She's a wonderful person."
Her license was taken, then given back. We all got together and talked her into using the senior-service bus and she never drove again.
This was a good-ending... unlike so many others.
I'm actually surprised there aren't more "Speed Bump" accidents from the land of retirees.
At 77, the poor woman probably has the awareness, reaction and reflexes of a Friday night drunk.
I'm shocked this isn't being blamed on the car, like the fictional "sudden accelerations" of Audis in the 1980s.
Some folks at 77 are brighter than a lot of 21 year olds.
It doesn't mention it in the article, but these ladies lived in the same subdivision (Mainlands) as the elderly man who hit the guy and kept on driving toward the Skyway Bridge with the man lodged in his windshield.
Well, it was a Toyota Station Wagon. That's not a violent breed. Had she been driving an SUV, the article would certainly have been written differently.
There is blame enough to go around. One should never stand directly behind or in front of the car one is directing.
But they can't drive worth a damn.
I say with full confidence that most 77 year olds are brighter than most 21 year olds. Reaction times are a different story.
"Stop me before I kill again!"
My grandmother continued to drive until she broke her pelvis and was placed in a home. She was frankly blind and drove anyway. She somehow conned the DMV into renewing her drivers license. How exactly I'm not sure. But she had absolutely no business being on the road, and was a menace to every living thing. I'm told she would tool along at about 20 mph. The only good news was that if she hit someone they had a good long time to get out of the way.
I can sympathize though. Driving is a sign of independence and it is tought to give it up.
The law firm of Dewey, Cheatum and Howe is on the case and will be contacting Toyota.
We "white knuckled" the trip to the airport and she crossed 4 lanes of traffic to barely make it off at the exit.
Needless to say we counted our blessings to be alive.
Sadly NO-ONE could convince her to give up her license!
I fear it will end badly!
It's no small deal when your days grow short.
My partner's elderly aunt did the same thing against an even more elederly 95 year old grandmother. Broke the grandma's hip.
Why is it always two ladies?
LOL!!
Oh, for Pete's sake....
These really are tragic. Oldsters who have driven safely for decades, and can't imagine having lost the capacity to drive safely indefinitely. Trouble is, it is probably more inattentiveness or distractibilty, which wouldn't show up during a driving test. I know alcohol also contributes to a percentage of these cases, and to a small undetermined degree, perhaps medications.
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