Posted on 07/16/2009 4:27:58 AM PDT by suspects
It’s not funny anymore.
Another confused 84-year-old behind the wheel. Another child - a 23-month-old in a stroller - sent to the hospital. And that pathetic bunch on Beacon Hill we jokingly call “leaders” are still sitting on their aspirations.
I’m sick of it.
For awhile, I was yukkin’ it up over our elderly driver problem and Massachusetts’ refusal to regulate them in any way. I had fun mocking them with sound bites from Grandpa Simpson on my radio show (“The metric system is a tool of the devil!”) and writing song parodies like “Wal-Mart Got Run Over By My Grandma.”
But yesterday, reading the story of two boys and their grandmother hit in a Medfield crosswalk, I didn’t laugh, smirk or roll my eyes. Instead, I got really, really mad.
I got mad because I realized that this isn’t going to end. Thanks to our gutless Legislature, I’m going to be reading the same headline tomorrow, or next week, or next month. And nothing is going to change.
This “joke” of a policy - of letting 90-year-olds drive around like they’re 29-year-olds - should have ended a long time ago.
It should have been over in October 2007 when a 76-year-old plowed through the lobby of a Brockton medical office and killed a doctor and a secretary.
Over when an 86-year-old hit a little girl at a Randolph school on the day of the 2008 presidential primary.
Over last month when a 93-year-old turned a Danvers Wal-Mart into an open-air market, almost killing a 1-year-old in the process.
And when 4-year-old Diya Patel was killed in Stoughton a month ago, something absolutely should have been done then.
Instead, we got deju vu all over again in Medfield.
It’s like we’re living the government version of the movie “Groundhog Day,”...
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Massachusetts is such a joke! No Democrat wants to offend old people and risk getting their votes. They would rather kill children.
Hey what’s the difference from the no speak or read English illegals flooding the roads and the geezers?
Who kills more on the highways - the entire population over 75 or just the 16 year olds?
The “war” against old people begins.
MADD et al keep going after diminishing returns in the form of DUIs, seat belts, red light cameras etc.
‘Safety’ is the buzzword but if they truly cared about safety then driving tests would be administered more than once in a 70-year window.
Just being a certain age isn’t enough. There needs to be some connection to number of road violations or tickets or something to justify the costs. I would want it shown that there are more injuries and deaths caused by older drivers than young mothers driving with a car full of toddlers or type A executives who are driving sleepy or have heart attacks, or fighting married couples who are arguing while driving, etc. One could argue that the elderly should be banned from walking because there have been accidents caused as they wander out in the street or cross too slowly. The overall statstics may already be there for all I know...so just sayin’...
Safety is a crock of crap. As stated in the Declaration of Independence:
“...all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
This sort of thing will continue across the country so long as people are allowed to go on their way and are generally not affected. As soon as a law is passed or a mandate placed that affects a large portion of the population, perhaps then revolution will take root. I, however, doubt that will happen. The Founders were quite clairvoyant; they saw the degradation of their country before it even started.
Forgive me for being a fatalist, but this country is lost.
As I recall, if you stopped people under 20 and over 75 from driving we would be nearly accident free. It may be “unfair” but the fact is that too many older drivers should have their licenses revokes. The problem is how do you set up a fair system that only targets the dangerous ones? With the commie AARP in the mix probably nothing will be done and the carnage perpetrated by the elderly will continue.
Older Drivers, Elderly Driving, Seniors at the Wheel
There's also another consideration here, which nobody's really talking about: what do you for all the seniors who have their licenses yanked? No state in the nation's ready to cope with that problem.
That said, I'm all for reverse graduated licensing. It works for teens, it'll work for seniors. Gives them as much time as possible to remain safely behind the wheel, and a reminder that they need to plan ahead should they lose their driving privileges.
And so they’re coming for the geezers...
A few things:
How can the elderly be prohibited from driving, when so many of them are present in Congress, and actually running our country? They would never let such local legislation stand, although of course they should.
I think a lot of this should be up to family members. I took my mom’s keys away from her. Of course she raised all kinds of hell about it, but who cares? I could not live with myself had she continued to drive, and possibly kill or harm someone as a result of her waning competence.
And it’s not just the elderly who are dangerous. So many people nowdays think they are totally capable of multi-tasking. Why not make them take a test to see whether they can text, talk on the phone, eat an ice cream sundae with a spoon, or eat a double Whopper with everything, while driving (activities I’ve all seen recently, done by slow or erratic drivers)? Hopefully anyone would flunk these tests, and not be allowed to do this frivolity while driving.
People are so wrapped up in themselves that they don’t realize they are controlling a ton or more of deadly mass which could kill others. They really need to stop being so selfish and realize how devastating their lack of attention could be to others.
'Fraid so. The "Push Grandma off the cliff" health ruination bill's being pushed hard by Saul Alinsky Zerobama.
As far as aged drivers are concerned, some need restriction or banning from the road. I have no more desire than anyone else to drive on the highway with a geezer who has an advancing case of Alzheimers or is effectively blind.
But I also steer clear of 16 year olds who have little understanding of the physics of driving and who think they're immortal. I steer clear of anyone driving with a cell phone glued to their ear; they have reaction times approximating infinity.
I'll keep driving until my eyes or reaction times begin to make me a danger to myself and others. Eyes right now are both 20/20, so I'm not too worried about it.
And I'm not holding anybody up, but shudder and carp when I get on a winding two lane road with no passing zones behind a little old gray haired lady who can barely see over the dashboard and drives 31 mph with a 50 mph speed limit. See, she's driving SAFELY (urp).
Who kills more on the highways - the entire population over 75 or just the 16 year olds?
Should be 16-19 years old texting while driving...I see it EVERYDAY
In Florida, Ashley Townsend ran a red light and killed two girls, a 5 year-old and a 2 year-old.
But Ashley isn't 84. She isn't even middle aged. She's a twenty-something who was on her cell phone and not paying attention when she killed those children. And, because Ashley's daddy is a big time lawyer in Tallahassee, Ashley ended up serving 30 days house arrest and loss of her license for 1 year. This, after 18 months of the state of Florida being unable to find anything to charge her with.
The moral of the story is that this article tries to tar and feather older drivers as being dangerous who shouldn't be allowed to get behind the wheel. So, where would an Ashley Townsend fit in that mix? All of us are different. Some 80 year-olds have mental or cognition problems that come with their age and DNA, whereas other 80 year-olds are as mentally sharp as the proverbial tack. It is downright stupid to define all people who reach a certain age or state in life as fitting into a certain category.
People are all different; God made us that way, and the "One-Size-Fits-All" label may work ok for clothes, but it doesn't fit people too well!
Don't worry, the "health care" will take care of that!
I don’t want to see older drivers banned from driving. I want to see them retested.
There’s nothing wrong with taking your drivers test again at 65 or 70 and having to prove your medically capable of still driving. No severe heart problems, no immediate risk of aneurisms, sight still strong enough with glasses, reaction time still good. Not everything can be predicted, obviously, but a 72 year old who has had 2 heart attacks and has the reaction time of a slug shouldn’t be on the road.
That way older folk who can still drive will and the ones who shouldn’t be won’t.
Yeah, I had assumed I’d be “taken care of”!
WTF, in fer a penny, in fer a pound!
Semper Fidelis
Dick G
*****
During the time that all those dangerous OLD people went on their 'car killing sprees', how many DRUNK ILLEGALS in Mass were in accidents with casualties, fatalities and how many ILLEGALS stuck around for the POLICE to arrive???
((((((( crickets )))))))
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