Help too late for driver in fatal crash

The Indianapolis Star ^ | March 6, 2004 | Tom Spalding

[Samwise]

The frantic calls poured in to 911.

"Somebody's going to die if this woman doesn't get stopped!" one caller told a dispatcher.

While behind the wheel of her 1995 Lincoln sedan a week ago today, Dorothy Beasley, 73, had fallen ill shortly after entering I-465 from a Southside exit. Unable to take her foot off the gas pedal, and driving alone, she careened back and forth in her vehicle while traveling east.

Motorists took it upon themselves to create a rolling roadblock behind her. But despite at least a dozen calls to emergency dispatchers, starting just before 11:21 a.m., help arrived too late. Beasley's terrifying journey ended in a one-car crash at 11:29 a.m.

Beasley, a retired school cook in Decatur Township, died Thursday at Methodist Hospital of head injuries suffered in the one-car crash. Her husband of 56 years, Charles, had her taken off life support Wednesday.

"If she went nine miles, where were the police?" asked Criscinda Hammond, 28, Kokomo, who is Beasley's granddaughter.

Indiana State Police didn't show up until after Beasley crashed because of a lack of available troopers, an unwritten policy that limits how reports of erratic drivers are checked, and an apparent communications breakdown that saw them fail to immediately ask for assistance from another agency, such as the Marion County Sheriff's Department.

The result: Beasley and others on the highway had the help of only the two drivers who warned other motorists of the danger.

"I just kept wondering, 'Where's the help?'" said Kim Wilson, of Whiteland, who was part of the rolling roadblock. "We passed how many major intersections -- Emerson Avenue and Washington Street -- and I kept thinking they'd (police) be ahead. It was like nobody ever was there."

State Police First Sgt. Dave Bursten said troopers were in a "no-win situation."

State Police have minimal staffing on weekends, Bursten said, and the two troopers on duty in the area at the time of the accident were busy working separate crashes with injuries on both sides of I-70 at the Keystone Avenue/Rural Street exit.

Bursten said the first priority goes toward an injury crash. Calls about unsafe motorists occur frequently, he said, and they often can't be stopped even if they are found.

Accident investigators said Beasley apparently suffered a medical problem on the highway that may have paralyzed her right side. Family members say she was diabetic, and something occurred that left her disoriented.

Bursten said there's no way to know for certain if anyone could have caught up with Beasley or if, with her disorientation, they would have been able to get her to slow down.

"We're damned if we do, we're damned if we don't. We will be charbroiled for chasing the speeding motorist and charbroiled for not pursuing the speeding motorist," Bursten said.

[Samwise]

Very long, sad story.

[UNGN]

Yeah, It's too bad the police aren't there to save all of us from ourselves.

The Granddaughter asks "where were the police". Where the hell was she? She could have been carting granny around to her appointments. Maybe even rushed her to the hospital when she stroked out.

Thank God granny didn't kill any innocents. Maybe if she was wearing a seat belt (I don't know anyone over 70 who does), she wouldn't have died of head injuries.

[Iris7]

Autos are inherently dangerous. At sixty five miles per hour a human being has twenty times the kinetic energy of a rifle bullet. At the same speed a car has the kinetic energy as a 57 mm World War Two anti-tank gun projectile.

Sixty five miles and hour is about half the speed a person hits the ground after falling through the sky for miles.

By the way, how were the police, assuming they could get there in the five minute window available, going to stop her?

[Wiggins]

By the way, how were the police, assuming they could get there in the five minute window available, going to stop her?

I'm sure no matter what method the police attempted would have resulted in a law suit against them. Either too excessive, or not enough action on their part.

[eno_]

"We're damned if we do, we're damned if we don't. We will be charbroiled for chasing the speeding motorist and charbroiled for not pursuing the speeding motorist," Bursten said.

Ha ha ha. Didn't raise enough revenue to actually attend to a safety matter. Char broiled is right.

[eno_]

If they were not such a transparent revenue function, they would not get so dissed all the time. They deserve it.

[Uncle Sausage]

Isn't a 1995 Lincoln at least as heavy and dangerous as an ESUV?

[JudyB1938]

I am so sick and tired of old people. I have felt that way all of my life. They are absolutely ridiculous in how they think they are the same people they were when they were young. We were behind some old geezer on the highway yesterday. He was driving so erratic, it was if he were drunk. He wasn't. He was just OLD!

BTW, I will be 66 in a couple of months - so I DO have room to talk. Plus, I took my own advice and quite driving two years ago when it became apparent my eyesight and reflexes just were not GOOD ENOUGH. My ego or inconvenience pales in the light of killing some young person who has an entire life ahead.

I'm against "they oughta pass a law" usually - but they'd BETTER tighten up the reigns on old people driving. There's more and more of them every year, so there's going to be many more fatalities if they aren't FORCED to stay off the roads.

[BunnySlippers]

We were behind some old geezer on the highway yesterday. He was driving so erratic, it was if he were drunk. He wasn't. He was just OLD!

I totally agree with you. But everytime a law is proposed to rein in old drivers or to have them tested more frequently AARP steps in to cry age discrimination.

Out here in (Los Angeles) California, we have not been able to get the laws on the book.

[JudyB1938]

Uh, isn't that COLLY-FORNIE ?

LOL

[tahiti]

"...but they'd BETTER tighten up the reigns on old people driving. There's more and more of them every year, so there's going to be many more fatalities if they aren't FORCED to stay off the roads."

Wow, Judy, I am a bit flabbergasted after your reading your remarks. Especially the one I have copied and pasted above.

I will say one thing, you are definitely a female. I guess we now know why women were not allowed to vote when this country was founded.

Who is "they'd?" Government, I presume.

Doesn't government get it's limited power from the people in this country?

Isn't it possible that traveling on the public roads paid for by gasoline taxes that all driver's of automobiles pay, have a "right" versus a "privilege" to drive their automobile at any age?

I can a least cite a constitutional basis for my contention (at the federal level, Amendment IX, in the state of Missouri where I live, Article I, Section 2) that all citizens have a "right" to operate their private automobile on the roadways they pay for.

You on the otherhand, use that old, worn out, tyrannically based "for the public good" argument to deny and disparage constitutionally protected rights.

Where is the constitutional basis for your contention that "old" people be "... FORCED to stay off the roads?"

Also, remember what goes around comes around. You will be old some day as well and this arbitrary denial of rights that you advocate, will apply to you.

[Imal]

I am trying to imagine how our unfortunate driver could be able to keep her foot on the gas pedal enough to keep a vehicle moving (not at top speed, apparently), but unable to move it three inches in any other direction, or shift her weight to do so, even while turning the wheel enough to keep the vehicle on the road, drive several miles this way, suffer an eventually fatal head injury, and someone was able to figure all this out afterwards.

You can't make this stuff up, although some aspects of the story do indeed bear the aroma of artistic license.

It is a bizarre story, and the premise of this article, that somehow the highway patrol is responsible for this astronomically unlikely mishap, is absurd and an insult to the highway patrol as well as the reader.

My sympathies for the driver and her family, but I cannot imagine, if I was the driver, that I could reasonably expect someone to come along and save me if I became unable to control my vehicle. This is the real world, not a Marvel comic book.

Gimme a freakin' brake.

[Imal]

For my part, I support competence testing for all drivers whenever a license is issued or renewed, regardless of age.

Yep, a professionally supervised driving test every time.

While it would cost more, it would also be a lot safer to have every driver professionally evaluated by a human being every four years, instead of rubber-stamped as is currently the fashion.

Older drivers aren't the only drivers who pose a threat to public safety.

[cherry]

"fallen ill "

ah, yes....the soft landing....

she just got sick right before she entered the busy highway....

I would venture a guess that this lady, nice older lady that she may be, has had recurring medical problems for some time....

memory loss?...poor mobility?...poor eyesight?....reflexes shot?...

maybe she has had recurring angina attacks or TIA's...

If this lady was 23 instead of 73, we wouldn't be saying that she fell "ill"...we would be having her blood alcohol level checked and a drug screen run on her.. and if nothing showed up, we would rush to condemn the lazy, inattentive youthfulness and try to enact more laws to stop her.....

BTW...the elderly population is notorious for their use of many pain killers....

I would love to see a breakdown on that....

I just get sick of the hypocrisy when it comes to evaluating drivers....you just can not do anything wrong when your elderly....but if you're 20, look out, they throw the book at you.....( I have two whole tickets in my entire life so this is not sour grapes)

[cherry]

I don't want anybody on the road who can't drive, period....

IF you can't see, if you can't hear, if you can't move fast enough to put the brakes on, or to steer thru traffic , or if your memory is such that you can't remember from one minute to the next, then you don't belong on the road....

We have had at least 3 alzheimer patients drive off and die in their vehicles out in the boonies, because their families thought that a little driving wouldn't hurt them...

Growing older is supposed to mean growing wiser...knowing your limits, knowing what you can do and can't do...

[cherry]

"Older drivers aren't the only drivers who pose a threat to public safety"

true, just the least regulated of any group....the group destined to pay the cheapest insurance rates and get away with saying that they "fell ill" when they crash the car...

[tahiti]

"I don't want anybody on the road who can't drive, period....

Let's see, the last time I checked the country that you and I live in, Cherry, is the U.S., not the former Soviet Union.

What is the constitutional basis for you to deny or disparage rights, "retained by the people" advocated in your remark posted above?

[trussell]

Did you miss this part of her post:

BTW, I will be 66 in a couple of months - so I DO have room to talk. Plus, I took my own advice and quite driving two years ago when it became apparent my eyesight and reflexes just were not GOOD ENOUGH. My ego or inconvenience pales in the light of killing some young person who has an entire life ahead.

It already applies to her in her opinion.

[Lancey Howard]

Unable to take her foot off the gas pedal

Bull.

[cameronsmom]

Driving is a privilege. The state should be able to calculate the ages of people involved in accidents, and adjust manditory drivers tests accordingly.