|
|
|
 |
Donate Here By Secure Server
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! Thanks Registered |
|
Posted on 07/18/2003 2:33:01 PM PDT by Calpernia
When George Russell Weller sped through a packed farmers market Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., the 86-year-old driver apparently stomped on the gas pedal when he meant to hit the brake. His confusion lasted for nearly three city blocks, cost 10 people their lives and injured dozens more. Even so, legal experts say, it might not constitute a crime.
Tests showed no signs that Weller was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. His statements to police -- that he tried to stop the car, not floor it -- suggest his actions were unintentional. Might then his age be to blame?
The accident has sparked just such a question and renewed the debate over whether states should take more steps to determine when to stop the elderly from getting behind the wheel. The issue will loom larger as the baby-boom generation grows older.
Federal officials caution against concluding that older drivers' skills are suspect. ''Just because you reach an age threshold doesn't mean your driving skills have diminished,'' says Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. ''Teenagers are responsible for far more fatal accidents.''
NHTSA has suggested that states allow doctors, family members and friends to flag elderly drivers to the motor vehicles department, which could then test the seniors' vision and driving skills. The agency has not recommended mandatory testing for drivers who reach a certain age.
Weller had no accidents or violations on his record and had passed vision and written tests at a California Department of Motor Vehicles office Nov. 28, 2000, records show.
''We always told the Wellers they were role models for how the rest of us should be when we're in our 80s,'' says longtime friend C. Richard Hulquist, an ophthalmologist and member of the church the Wellers attend. ''They are active, kind, involved in the community -- just very intelligent and very kind people, both of them. It's been a terrible shock.''
In an effort to ensure that the government is careful about whom it allows to drive, the AAA auto club says states should stop allowing drivers to renew their licenses by mail and should require vision tests for all drivers. ''There are 28-year-olds who can't see well enough to drive,'' AAA spokesman Mantill Williams says. ''We shouldn't be taking the licenses away from people because they turn a certain age. We should just be doing more testing -- for everyone.''
Focusing simply on elderly drivers might also prove politically perilous. As the elderly become a larger, more powerful voting bloc, age-based licensing will likely be ''politically impossible,'' says Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, a group of state highway safety organizations. Instead, agencies will have to focus on making cars and roads safer for elderly motorists. ''Street signs have to be enlarged and made clearer, and cars will have to be better designed to accommodate them,'' she says.
Regardless of the steps states might take, legal experts question whether any action will be taken against Weller.
''If you are a prosecutor, what makes this case difficult is that you have a tiny bit of fault, but a huge loss of life,'' says Franklin Zimring, a professor of law and director of the criminal justice research program at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California-Berkeley. ''You probably have an enormously contrite driver.''
If any charge applied, Zimring says, it would probably be vehicular homicide. Less often, a driver might face an involuntary manslaughter charge. In both cases, he says, prosecutors must prove what legal experts call ''negligence plus.'' That means they must show that Weller had a conscious intent to do something dangerous. But only if the driver was impaired by drugs or alcohol are prosecutors likely to file such charges, Zimring says. He says prosecutors would have to prove that Weller knew his capacity to drive was impaired.
Civil lawsuits are almost certain to be filed against Weller's insurance company. ''But nobody carries enough insurance to cover this kind of loss,'' Zimring says.
Another lawyer suggests that police need to answer more questions before determining how to proceed.
''There has to be a lot more investigation,'' says C. Robert Brooks, a Beverly Hills lawyer who represents older people who have lost their licenses in hearings before the Department of Motor Vehicles. ''I would wonder how (Weller) was confused for so long over the difference between the gas pedal and the brake.''
Brooks says he doesn't think the case meets the standards for vehicular homicide, which he says is rarely charged when deaths are not the result of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. More often than not, ''people die in traffic accidents, and the drivers are not charged with a crime.''
|
|
|
|
|
Donate Here By Secure Server
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! Thanks Registered |
|
Here's something else to think about. I don't know about CA, but IL requires all elderly drivers to take an annual driving test.
On the other hand, some states (I think GA is one) allow their elderly drivers to renew their driver's licenses by mail, for up to 10 years at a time. Not even so much as a vision test during all that time.
What good is that "licensing" process?
CHP: Driver May Have Hit Car Before Farmers' Market Tragedy
CHP: Driver May Have Hit Car Before Farmers' Market Tragedy Both Vehicles Being Examined
UPDATED: 11:59 a.m. PDT July 18, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- Police are investigating the possibility that the driver who plowed through Santa Monica's farmers market was speeding from the scene of a collision with a Mercedes before crashing through the market, killing 10 people and injuring dozens of others.
No other way to put it.
Prayers for all involved.
There was a letter to the editor this morning in the Times, from a woman who claimed it wasn't the driver's fault, but the fault "of access" because iron barriers weren't installed.
This is gonna be hilarious and would be worthy of a Broadway musical comedy if the circumstances weren't so unbelievably heartbreaking.
Total, unqualified agreement.
Dan
He hit the throttle instead of the brake to slow down. That might have been the first hint that his capacity to drive was impaired... How tragic for everyone involved.
Nope, Mom's driving SUVs while talking on their cell phones are the worst...
More specifically, teens who are driving other teens, which is why my teenage children are not allowed to drive other teens anywhere, nor are they allowed to ride with most teens.
I was almost sideswiped by one of those a couple of weeks ago. She was going from the on-ramp onto the highway. I swerved to miss her just in time. She just kept driving along, yacking away. I don't think she has any idea how close she came to dying.
Driving is dangerous. If people can't give it their focused attention they shouldn't be doing it, at any age.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.