Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
>>Laine told witnesses the gas pedal stuck.<<
To his foot.
Do they still make station wagons?
Wonder how old the vehicle was...
Another reason to avoid parades of any sort; I old that boy to quit driving ten years ago but them kids just won't listen.
(The Palestinian terrorist regime is the crisis and Israel's fist is the answer.)
One of the hardest and saddest things I ever had to do was convince my Dad it was time to hang up his keys. It would have killed him if he had ever hurt/injured someone.
Thankfully no one was killed and prayers for the injured.
Funny how the gas pedals on these cars only stick when a senior citizen is behind the wheel.
I'll speculate that he stomped on the gas rather than the brake.
Unfortunately he missed Ned Lamont, who was in the crowd somewhere (probably putting another Lieberman donation in the mail).
I'm surprised though. 65 responses and no cries of 'fry him'.
What that article is not telling you is that he was trying to cross the tracks where they were closed for Sailfest. There was a detour to go around Sailfest to get to the ferry.
The old guy came up to the detour, got confused, tried to inch into the crowd like they must have all been there by coincidence (maybe they were just a big group), he bumped into one person, got confused, stepped on the gas instead of the brake and hit 27 people.
He's probably driven this route 1,000 times but he came across a group of people he had never encountered and his cognitive skills couldn't process the change. The only thing he could process was "continue on my route like a robot".
He was being held at the hospital overnight and treated for "confusion" according to the local news.
Thankfully, nobody was killed.
NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Ned Lamont, the Democratic challenger for U.S. Senate and several of his campaign staff workers were in the same crowd that a station wagon plowed into Saturday afternoon during the city's annual Sailfest.
Lamont was not injured, said a campaign spokeswoman, but three of the staffers were treated for various injuries. In all 27, people were injured in the incident.
Lamont, who is challenging three-term incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Aug. 8 primary, was campaigning at festival, said spokeswoman Liz Dupont-Diehl.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was hurt," Dupont-Diehl told The Associated Press.
The campaign workers injuries' included a broken leg, a fractured nose and scrapes and bruises. Their names have not been released.
All the injured were taken to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital. Earlier reports indicated there were two people with serious injuries, but hospital spokesman Kelly Anthony said everyone is expected to be treated and released by late Saturday night.
The driver, Robert Laine, 89, of Wallingford, was not injured.
The incident happened around 3:30 p.m. near the Amtrak station where a crowd had gathered on both sides of the warning gates as a train passed. Witnesses said once the train departed and the gates lifted, the pedestrians and the Chevrolet Caprice wagon both began to cross.
New London Mayor Elizabeth Sabilia said the car was crossing tracks to get to the Fishers Island ferry when it struck a pedestrian.
"He panicked," she said.
The car then lurched forward and drove through the crowd, which witnesses said was about four- or five-people deep. At least two people bounced off the car windshield.
"It hit. It just kept going," witness Terrie Castagna, of Sterling, said. "I don't think anyone knew that a car was coming across. There was screaming, it happened so fast."
Castagna, 43, a former paramedic, helped with first aid until emergency crews arrived. She said she talked to the Laine who told her the gas pedal stuck.
"He was shaken. He was in shock," she said.
City police said it was premature to point to a cause and are still investigating, interviewing witnesses and many of those struck. Investigators will also look at any video that may have been captured by surveillance cameras used by Amtrak and the Fishers Island ferry.
"It was a very chaotic scene," police Capt. Kenneth Edwards said. "There were luckily a large number of emergency personnel in the area."
City police and paramedics were helped by units from neighboring towns. Responders even got help from a nearby hot dog vendor, Stephen Linicus, who donated 10 bags of ice.
The waterfront city's Sailfest brings thousands of visitors to the downtown. About 200,000 were expected to gather Saturday night for the fireworks over the Thames River.
"Everybody is in cheerful happy moods and suddenly something like this happens," Linicus said. "It dampens the whole scene unfortunately."
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/hc-08204102.apds.m0226.bc-ct--sailjul08,0,1097961.story?coll=hc-headlines-local-wire
It's all a bunch of hogwash. At 89 it's time to at least attempt to be a man and admit you royally screwed up.