Yesterday a visitor from Huntley tried to use the drive-through at Mixin' Mingle, 124 Cass Street, on the Woodstock Square.The only problem was that there is no drive-through there.
According to the Northwest Herald, the 81-year-old woman driver accelerated (when she should have braked).
The paper said she was cited for "failure to use due care to avoid a collision". I wonder if she was also cited for re-examination. One of the privileges a police officer has is to require drivers to be re-examined.
Did the driver have mobility problems? Maybe back or leg problems that didn't allow her to quickly remove her foot from the gas pedal and hit the brake? Or, when the car lurched forward and up over the curb, did her mind just not register quickly enough what was happening?
To be pulling into a parking place, one would be moving slowly; right? Why would you punch the gas?
3 comments:
This is very common Gus. Many years ago I handled an accident in which an elderly man went to his car, started it, put in drive when he should have put it in reverse and then drove right through his garage wall into his back yard. He then put it in reverse, floored it and drove through his garage door, across the alley, through that persons garage and into the rear of that house. No one was hurt including him but he insisted it was a mechanical failure.
I have an aunt who took the drivers test when she was 89 years old. She was livid that the guy would not pass her, even though she parked about five feet away from the curb when he tested her parking skills. She went back, found a sympathetic examiner and was given a license. We hid her keys and flattened her tires that night.
Thanks, Big Daddy.
I knew an older man in Woodstock who pulled out of his driveway, crossed the street, ran up over the curb and knocked down the neighbor's fence. Then he backed into the street and drove to his office.
He couldn't feel the pressure of his foot against the pedal and could not move his foot quickly from one pedal to another.
Several years ago the elderly mother of a friend rear-ended a car in Huntley, backed up, drove around the damaged car, and drove home to park in her garage.
Witnesses got her plate number and the Huntley cops showed up at her door. When they asked about her accident, she asked, "What accident?" and told them her car was fine.
Then she showed them her car in the garage, and the whole front end was mangled. She was suffering from dementia and the family had been unwilling to act. I suggested they TELL her doctor to contact the DMV. And also to take the keys and car (which wouldn't run, anyway) away from her.
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