FL - Man, 93, drives 3 miles with victim lodged in windshield, Oct 2005

A 94-year-old motorist struck and killed a pedestrian Wednesday evening, then drove about 3 miles with the body lodged in the windshield until he was stopped at a Sunshine Skyway tollbooth. The driver told officers he thought the body had fallen from the sky, said St. Petersburg police Officer Mike Jockers.

"He had no idea he had been involved in an accident," Jockers said. "He doesn't totally understand what happened."

The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m. when the 52-year-old pedestrian attempted to cross 34th Street S from east to west near 46th Avenue S, witnesses told police.

The pedestrian made it across two of the southbound lanes before he was hit by a 2002 Chevy Malibu, which was traveling about 45 mph, police said.

The impact severed the pedestrian's lower right leg, which remained in the street. His head and arms went through the windshield, while the rest of his body flipped up onto the roof of the car, Jockers said.

"The driver continued southbound, as the eyewitness said, like nothing happened," Jockers said.


Story

It's a sad thing, but there should be a cut off age for drivers when they get this old -maybe a yearly test or something. I have all the respect in the world for senior citizens - I am sure this 94 year old man didn't mean to hurt anyone.

I knew it was going to be in Florida before I ever fully looked. When I lived in Sarasota we had one that almost took down the airport and killed one and injured others because he thought his foot was on the brake and it was on the accelerator. I am getting there too as far as being older and I sincerely hope that my drivers license isn't renewed when I am 90. :furious:

Casshew said:

It's a sad thing, but there should be a cut off age for drivers when they get this old -maybe a yearly test or something. I have all the respect in the world for senior citizens - I am sure this 94 year old man didn't mean to hurt anyone.

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We had an older neighbor lady who would back out of her driveway until her rear tires hit something and then would put it in drive and go on her merry way. She hit my car, and a trailer (at two different times) and never even knew she had done it. I was terrified that she would eventually back up over the curb and end up killing one of my kids. I had her grandaughter take away her license or I was going to press charges.

Casshew said:

It's a sad thing, but there should be a cut off age for drivers when they get this old -maybe a yearly test or something. I have all the respect in the world for senior citizens - I am sure this 94 year old man didn't mean to hurt anyone.

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I agree, there should be a cut off age but there isn't, at least out here. However I think now they do have to take a driving test after a certain age, but not sure (my dad had to).

But this sort of thing happens I think everywhere. I remembered this one a couple a years ago because I saw it on the news while at the hospital and immediately thought of my old 'driving father' who lived in that area and he shopped there.
SANTA MONICA, California (CNN) -- A 7-month-old boy died Thursday of injuries suffered Wednesday when an 86-year-old man drove his car through a crowded farmers' market in Santa Monica, California.

The boy was the 10th fatality. More than 50 people were injured when Russell Weller drove his car through the pedestrians-only, three-block stretch crowded with shoppers, police said. Weller may face manslaughter charges, police said Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/17/farmers.market.crash/

Then, I looked for this one that I remembered from years back that was sickening, and she wasn't old, but was a junkie!

Mar. 07, 2002 In October of last year, while high on alcohol and Ecstasy, Chante Mallard, a 25-year-old nurse's aide, plowed into Gregory Biggs in her Chevrolet Cavalier - sending his body through her windshield, leaving his legs dangling onto the hood of the car. Typically, this is where you would read about the driver pulling over and police/medical personnel handling the situation... but this, of course, isn't typical.
Instead of pulling over and helping Gregory, Chante does the next logical thing - she drives home and parks her car in the garage, with poor Gregory still sticking out of the windshield.

Ok, fair enough. So she then gets some help, right? Right? Well, not exactly.

For the next 2 or 3 days (we can't burden her with remembering all of the details, as this took place waaay back in October), Chante was kind enough to check in on Gregory as he thoroughly inspected her dashboard with his midsection (because, you know, aside from spilling blood all over everything, what are you going to do for a couple of days while you're sticking through a windshield?). Eventually, Gregory bleeds to death.


http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?id=1418#board

Thanks for the links Tom'sGirl - it is a common occurance with the elderly having accidents like this.

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 through his windshield, police said.

Ralph Parker of Pinellas Park drove for three 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.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...2oct22,0,1869825.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

I have seen this time and time again ,elderly drivers who shouldnt be driving killing or being killed in accidents ,we had to convice my mother to give her license up, she was getting dangerous .I know not all elderly are bad drivers but there is not enough testing done here in australia .they wait till they are 80 here before they do a skill test for the elderly .

It's 70, 75 and then every year after 80 in Great Britain.

i know it's not going to happen in America because it would be a vote loser for anyone advocating it. plus, in most regions public transport isn't good.

and families of the elderly won't suddenly want to have to drive grandpa/grandma around, altho many do now. there would be a whole slew of pensioners needing rides all the time should teting happen.

so elderly drivers will continue until they have bad enough accidents to have their licenses taken away. apart from the majority who are great drivers. but it's the minority who are a big, big dangerous problem.

this is not good news for pedestrians or other road users.

they don't have testing for the elderly here in Germany either and we have an elderly person in our family here we're trying to wangle the car keys from. good luck to us on that. he doesn't use his car often and is a sprightly chap who uses (great) public transport, but every now and again he needs a car for where he wants to get to go (er, like driving for 3 days to Romainia and 3 days to get back, but that's another story).

We had a discussion going on another thread about teenage drivers and I stated there that I would take a teen driver over an elederly one any day. This is the type of thing that I base that on. Being a police officer in Florida, I delt with many elderly drivers who had no business driving.

Shadow205 said:

We had a discussion going on another thread about teenage drivers and I stated there that I would take a teen driver over an elederly one any day. This is the type of thing that I base that on. Being a police officer in Florida, I delt with many elderly drivers who had no business driving.

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And they shouldn't be driving. My dad gave up his license last year and it wasn't a minute too soon. He can't see and needs to put his finger in a glass of water to determine how to drink it. He was on the roads in a small town before that and his masculinty was at stake but everyone else's lives were at stake. We can love our seniors without putting anyone else at risk.Independence comes with responsibility and if you can't be responsible, don't act it.

Casshew said:

It's a sad thing, but there should be a cut off age for drivers when they get this old -maybe a yearly test or something. I have all the respect in the world for senior citizens - I am sure this 94 year old man didn't mean to hurt anyone.

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Maybe not a cutoff age, as everyone ages at different rates, but impressing the children with the need to monitor parents for their driving capabilities, would at least be a step in the right direction. Agreed that a lot of our elderly senior citizens should not be behind the steering wheel. There's a retirement area some distance North of me, where it is understood that around the first of the month, the retired folks are going to be on the roads in town, cashing/depositing/spending their retirement checks; LE kind of turns a blind eye, and the most others in the area stay off the roads, as much as possible, during those few days, as those are usually the only days most of the senior seniors are on the road.

My grandfather was still driving at age 91.

Until the day he was driving with my uncle and my grandfather completely ran a stop sign. When my uncle yelled at him for not stopping, my grandfather insisted he didn't HAVE to stop anymore--he was old enough to not stop--let the younger people stop instead.

My uncle not only took away my grandfather's license that day--he took away the car, too.