They’re talking about this story on the morning news even as I type asking the same question, “How could he drive so far?” I don’t get it, I really don’t.
CJ
What a horrible story. I also support mandatory yearly testing for elderly drivers. It’s hard to admit that due to your age, you can’t do something anymore. No one wants to admit they’re getting older. I can only hope when I get that old I will have enough sense to know if I need to stop driving.
Has he been charged yet?
The crash may not be age-related. Although he appears dazed in the video footage, this might be shock from having been in the accident rather than a sign of feeble-mindedness.
Rick mentions the Audi fiasco. There was nothing wrong with the car. Perhaps the pedals were closer together than some people were used to, but the car never “suddenly accellerated” on its own accord. But the drivers refused to concede that they could have mistaken the pedals and IIRC it was decided there was “something” wrong with the car – even though it was shown that with the brake all the way down and the accellerator floored it was impossible for the engine to overpower the brakes.
I think TheLoadedDog “got it in one”. People tend to freeze in a panic situation – not just oldsters, everybody. Some people are trained to deal with emergencies, and they often can take corrective action and avoid a crash. But I think most people are like, “What the fu…! Oh, shit! I CAN’T STOP! AHHHH!” My dad was teaching a friend’s daughter how to drive. They were in an open field and the only obstruction was a water tower. She headed right for it and hit it. A few years before, her older sister was riding a rented snowmobils in Big Bear. There was one tree in the field. She hit it. Look at how people react on the freeway. Many of them will apply brakes out of habit when something unexpected happens, instead of making a more logical move like speeding up to get around a problem or simply changing lanes. Even in the carpool lanes I’ve seen people brake for no reason when there are no cars in front of them for a long distance.
His eyes didn’t have to be closed if he were having a seizure. And if they were wide open it may have been simple fear. As Spavined Gelding said, if the “brake” isn’t working then a person is likely to push it harder. If the “brake” is the accellerator, then the person will go faster and faster and be sitting there wondering “Why the hell doesn’t it stop?”
I’ll concede that elderly drivers do not have the reflexes of younger drivers. But age may not have been a factor in this case. Young drivers often do not have good reflexes because they do not have the experience to have developed them. And I see a lot of “Left Seat Passengers” on the roads. I take driving somewhat seriously, but most people seem to just be along for the ride and just happen to have a wheel in front of them.
My vote is in on this very point. And I’d be very surprised if this were not the origin of what actually happened when all the dust and smoke clears. It is the most logical answer.
BTW I started a thread in IMHO about ‘elderly drivers’, less about this actual incident if anyone wants to weigh in.
Carry on.
He has been questioned and released. Charges may still be filed, but if he is found to be mentally competent then authorities may just call it a tragic accident. You can bet there will be civil suits, in any case.
Question for those who call for testing of the elderly: Would you support recurrent testing for everybody? Most drivers are not involved in serious accidents – including old people. But as I said, many people appear to me – through their actions as well as their appearance – to be Left Seat Passengers (inattentive drivers).
On a semi-related note, Bob Hoover was accused of “mental incompetence” and lost his airman’s medical certificate. Without that, a pilot can’t fly. Hoover is one of the best pilots living despite his age. He demonstrated that he was not “losing it”, yet it took a couple of years for him to be able to fly in the U.S. again. (Airline pilots have to stop flying airliners at 60, and all pilots must undergo recurrent physical examinations and biennial flight reviews.)
Certainly people may not be competent to drive at a certain age; but what is that age? What about younger drivers, many of whom should not have a license? Where do you draw the line, and why do you draw it there?
I’m wondering how in the world one car managed to kill eight and critically injure 14? We’ve had a number of instances here in NY where cars or cabs or vans have plowed into crowded sidewalks and even a farmer’s market, but I never recall more than a few deaths and injuries. But this is like a Palestinian bus-bombing! What kind of car was it? How did it manage to kill and seriously injure so many, even over a two-block radius?
I read in the paper this morning that the airbag had deployed at some point during the process. If it went off long enough before the car finally came to a stop, that would have been extremely disorienting at least. Plus they do have a fair amount of impact when they go - I’ve heard of bloodied noses among other things - so perhaps he’s driving along, sees he’s made a wrong turn and the market is there, jams on the gas instead of the brake, freezes up because his reflexes aren’t the same these days, hits something, air bag goes off and smacks him, now he’s really dazed…
It’s a tragedy. 
And I do hope that better driver tests - for all ages - are implemented to catch the people who shouldn’t be driving.
Goos article. Basically, she kept driving until ahe was in the middle of a road rage incident, where this guy came up to her and screamed at her, and TOLD her what she had been doing - she was so shocked she just thanked him for telling her (which shut HIM up, as well), and then whe went to the DMV and turned in her license, and gave her car to charity.
Well, I’m 63 and would willingly submit to being tested every year. The question is, as someone else said, where do you draw the line? 60? 70? 80? No matter where, the cost is going to be horrendous and the logistics are going to be difficult in the extreme. But, we have an increasing elderly population and this is a subject that needs to be addressed—it has been talked to death and the time is near when “something must be done.”
Update:
Some additional details from the article, describing the car, accident scene, airbag deployment, etc.:
Yeesh.
Also from the above website:
I think a road test for everybody every four years or so might be an excellent idea. More often, past a certain cutoff age, be it 65 or 75 or whatever.
Most old people are not involved in serious accidents, true. But could it be true that most accidents of the mistake-the-accellerator-for-the-brake sort do, in fact, involve old people? That’s certainly the impression I get from Romenesko over the years, although he could be skewing the facts by the stories he chooses to present.
Can’t remember where, but I read an article in a car magazine or website about a proposed redesign of the accellerator and brake pedals, combining them into a single pedal which you toe to accellerate, and heel to brake. That would take some getting used to, but might be a good idea.
And yes, I too would support periodic retesting for everyone.
The pussy newscasters I heard the story from actually had the balls to make it sound as if the car was to blame!! Sweet pasturized Christ! Are we all so PC that we can’t come out and say “Some old geezer mowed down a bunch of people!”? They made a big deal about the year, make and model and said that it was being “carefully checked for mechanical failures”. 
I drive a Jeep, and so I’m speaking from experiance, mechanical failures generally bring you to a grinding halt! I wish to hell I could have a mechanical failure that would make the damn thing go two blocks (in a row!).
Sad story. Take the keys from Grandpa.
Thats like the pot putting a cart before a horse of a different color.
From the link in the OP:
That should have been an indication to somebody that Mr. Weller is no longer a safe driver.
What if the guy were 35 or 40? Would they still be calling it a tragic accident?
I think we have to pick an arbitrary age, like 63, when you must undergo road testing every two years, and then when you hit 70, every year.
Why those ages? Because no matter what age you pick, someone is going to think it’s wrong. But I think an age must be chosen, if for no other reason that we can start catching those who should not be on the road anymore.
So, at what age are you suggesting that mechanical failure be ruled out of the investigation altogether? When do you that leap and toss out basic jurisprudence in favour of “the obvious?”
I agree that it seems most likely that driver-error is the cause of this accident, but waiting until the conclusion of the investigation to assign blame in black-and-white hardly makes someone a “pussy.” It makes them responsible journalists. Would you prefer it if all reporting was based on opinion, assumption, and prejudice? Have it your way, then.
I drive a car with a standard transmission so I use both feet, but when I drive an automatic I only use my right foot. I’ve noticed that my mother and quite a few people in her generation never learned to drive using only one foot. My mother operates the break with her left food and the gas with her right. When she breaks, her right foot is still on the gas pedal.
I was on my way to the Third Street Promenade (where the farmer’s market is) for lunch yesterday with some cow-orkers. The traffic was awful and the sky was filled with news helicopters, so we figured something bad had happened and went somewhere else.
Didn’t find out until later what had happened. I could still hear the helicopters when I went to bed at almost midnight.