Yesterday, I was going to visit the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica to see my old American Eagle manager. I also wanted to see the Farmer's Market since I went to it last year. It was a good thing I didn't go or else I might have been with a head on with a Buick.
Fucking hell... carmageddon...
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote:Police released Weller after questioning him.
I hope they revoked his driver's license.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
One of those reasons why older drivers should be under higher scrutiny.
Wanna hear something else? An 86 year old woman hit a 42 year old mother with her car. She became trapped underneath the car, and was banging the hood in an effort to get the old woman to stop. Unfortunately, the mother was dragged to death.
The old woman claims she didn't see the mother, and thought the banging and screaming was something wrong with the car itself. In fact, the dead mother only came off as soon as old woman reached her driveway. She drove in her garage, got out, went into the house, not knowing there was a dead woman outside, courtesy of herself.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
My grandfather (90 years old) had his driving priviliges "pulled" by my father and uncle after he ran a stop-sign about a year ago. Luckily he didn't hurt anyone, but it served as a warning that he couldn't safely operate a MV anymore.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
My Brother-in-law's grand mother was the oldest driver I knew personally. She drove till she died at 98. I don't think she was ever in an accident, but she is the exception to the rule. IIRC, drivers over 70 make up only 2% of drivers in the USA, but account for 14% of accidents.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Reaction time is often inversely proportional to judgement with the ageism. This would appear to be a failure of both. Frankly, I'm surprised more people are not demanding his blood. Sure he's old and he got confused, but the man killed 9 people and seriously injured many more.
My good friend lives just a few blocks from the market. She'd been there just an hour before it happened shopping for some nice produce for some film-shoots she's catering this weekend. Terrifying. Horrible.
Two and a half blocks seems like an awfully long time to realize that something is wrong and correct it. Esp. with people being dead on and around your vehicle.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I'm guessing he had a turn, or a stroke.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
quote: "He said he tried to brake and he couldn't stop the vehicle."
I didn't clip enough of it, he said he thought he had his foot on the brake. I did that once, with my foot on the gas, and hit a fence and the corner of a house. No one was hurt, not that much damage to the house and fence, did the car up nice. I was very very lucky. I missed hitting a guy who was locking his car in the next spot. He told me all he saw was a blue streak as I passed.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Did you keep accelerating, thinking you were braking, for the equivalent of 2.5 blocks, though?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
That's what I mean - he could have been having some sort of stroke at the same time and not realised what was going on - only that he though he was trying to break.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
quote: Did you keep accelerating, thinking you were braking, for the equivalent of 2.5 blocks, though?
Looking back on it all these years later, I think it went something like:
I was coming down the 1500 block of Washington street, the nations longest city block, let off on the gas to let the car slow down, made a left into the parking lot and pulled into the second space. When I pulled my foot off the gas to slow down, I wasn't paying enough attention, I hit the gas instead of the brake as I pulled into the parking lot. I hit the "brake" hard, since I accelerated instead of slowing, like I thought I would. I hit the fence post, splitting the front end of the car into two section, till it hit the engine, then the car went over the now laying flat poll and into the corner of the house. Maybe 50 feet altogether. I never stopped the car, the house did that nicely, and the engine died, then I figured out what had happened. About 4 seconds total. I'll never know if I would have figured it out and stopped soon, but I can't see that going on for two blocks. I think at the worst I would have turned the key off and killed the engine that way. I have had an accelerator stick on me before, but that happened so fast that I didn't realize what I had done till it was over.
I dreaded telling my Dad what had happened, he never spanked me in all of my life, but he was a master at giving me a hard time. When I told him, he got a very starnge look on his face, and told me that he had done the exact same thing that very morning, in an empty parking lot. He said if there had been another car near he would have hit it, but he was in a mall lot, prepareing to walk around the building a few times, and it was very early, before any of the businesses had opened.