From WCVB and thebostonchannel.com:
BOSTON -- A car being driven by a 93-year-old Peabody man crashed into a Wal-Mart in Danvers on Tuesday, injuring six people, including a 1-year-old girl, police said.
The driver was apparently looking for a parking spot at about 10 a.m. when he hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, crashing through the store's glass doors.
What is it with old people thinking that the accelerator is actually the brake pedal? You’d think after 150 years behind the wheel that hitting the gas or the brake would be a matter of muscle memory for these driving Yodas. I guess not. It seems like we can’t go a week without somebody reporting that some Mr. Magoo made himself into a two-ton bowling ball by rolling through a sidewalk bazaar, leaving nothing but a 7-10 split.
Should old people be banned from driving? I wouldn’t go that far, but clearly some kind of annual reflex test might be in order once you hit a certain age. The funny thing is that you don’t hear politicians proposing such a thing, ever. Not where I live, anyway. They’re too busy raising the age at which one can get a license, while the police already enforce unreasonably stringent “junior operator” standards, even though these kids have far better reflexes than Miss Daisy. When it comes to being a vehicular safety hazard, teenagers and other young drivers can be reckless, but many elderly drivers can be just as dangerous behind the wheel.
So why don’t our elected officials do anything about this hazard? Five words: American Association of Retired Persons. It’s often a player in both national and local politics, not necessarily because of the $25 million or so it throws around in its annual lobbying, but because it represents a shitload of old people who really don’t need to be pissed off any more than they already are. Furthermore, old people comprise one of the fastest-growing demographics, if not the fastest. Plus they vote, so I don't expect much from my sackless representatives in the state legislature on this issue.
The AARP has said that it supports driver reassessments, so long as they are given to all and not just people of a certain age. But this is bullshit because the AARP knows that there is no way already cash-strapped states would spend the money necessary to reassess all eligible drivers. That would be ludicrous. What would be the point of retesting a thirty year-old? None. What would be the point of retesting a nonagenarian? Let’s ask the people in the Danvers Wal-Mart who were nearly killed today.
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