What a horrible tradgedy

[novass]

In Santa Monica, Ca like 20 minutes from my house, a 88 year old man drove through the Farmers Market (open-air produce swapmeet, in case its called something different somewhere else) over 60mph. He killed 9 people, one a 2 year old baby, and injured like 20.

Full story
http://www.msnbc.com/news/939947.asp?0cv=CB10

[Ziploc]

:shock:

[robruf]

That's awful, thse poor families lives are ruined just because society doesn't want to hurt someones feelings by taking away their driver's licence. We have to stop being such babies so that accidents like this can be prevented.

[666fast]

I saw this on the news yesterday. It wen tfrom 40 injured and one killed to 9 killed and 45 injured over night. The old man must really be terrified. As much as he should be punished, sticking him in jail is a waste, he's 89 years old. The cost of keeping him jail is too much. Why give someone 100 year sentence for him to die in five years?
Pull his liscence, and give him 40 hours of community service every week untill he is dead.

[SFDMALEX]

An 88 year old should not have fucking license. Jezzz. That sad.

[SFDMALEX]

An 88 year old should not have fucking license. Jezzz. Thats sad.

[geekdiggy]

a two year old baby? say it isn't so :cry:

[tekwar]

yeah its sad news, but i think they should be more stringent or elderly people driving.....i cant keep count on how many times i see them nearly get into an accident and such

[gis]

just saw this on the news yesterday,he said to the camera,that he thinks he pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal :?

but yes im afraid the little baby was killed.
what a shame

[aawil]

I've always thought there should be retesting when you get to a certain age. I myself seen a old lady plow through a four way stop and hit a mini-van. Luckly nobody was hurt. I don't think she had a clue what was going on. The problem is there are to many older voters so most don't want to support something that's going to cost them votes unfortunely. :(

[novass]

^^^^ i agree with what you said, there should re-tests, nothing real hard, but something just to see if you can still handle the car.

[666fast]

Re testing old people? I'm not sure on that one. The government keeps telling us that driving is a privelige and not a right. Yet, the actions of our government keep showing that it is in fact a right to drive. Seems any idiot can get a liscence.
As for the old man, I understand accidently hitting the gas instead of the brake, it happens all the time. Unfortunately, he killed 10 people.
I think it's quite obvious he won't be driving again. I'm curious to see how this pans out. As sad as the whole thing is, sticking him in prison is useless.
I'll stic by my line of punishment. Yank his liscence and give him 40 hours of community service. I'm sure he is greatly ashamed of himself, but he has to be punished in some way.

[novass]

^^ ya for the age he is, he will most likely die with this on his concious. I heard that he kind of stopped then sped up again a few times, I wanna know wtf was goin thru his head and why it happened. 3 blocks full of people he drove thru over 50 mph, thats insane. We go down there every so often to buy fresh produce and we are usually stoned when we do it, I couldnt ever imagine standing there when this happened.

[tekwar]

i taught they did retest people when they reached a certain age, but then again i could be mistaken. I know some countries do adopt this, not sure about the states though.

[gis]

it showed a helicopter view of the scene.and shit,how he actually did it is a mystery.it went on for over 1/4 mile they said,now IMO thats a dam long way to accidently press the accelerator and not let up on it.

but,sendin him to prison at 81,i think in a weird kind of way.that be a bit unfair.but knowing u had killed a baby,that would just hurt me so much inside

[tekwar]

yeah you cant really do much to him already, he has lived out most of his life. the best the could probably do is just strip him of his license. Its just one of those unfortunate things that happen...everyone loses

[troskap]

It's a rather dicey situation, what to do about driving priveleges for the elderly. I mean, you could retest them every 5 years or so, and perhaps that might help things. That said, in this country, where just about ANYONE can pass the 'world-in-a-parking-lot' exams that we have, that might be dubiously reassuring. And even then, I doubt it would screen out those that might make the momentary bad decision or reaction, as which it would seem happened in the tragic event in California.

What's the solution? I'm not sure. Big Brother traffic control, ala Minority Report? Remove human error by removing the human from the process completely? (Not something I want to stomach, personally.)

[tekwar]

banning people from driving if/when they reach 80 unless they pass a stringent exam? harsh ....perhaps....but it be for the safety and benefit of the general public.