Free Republic

Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr is apparently okay after crashing his car into a telephone pole in Wellesley Sunday morning. According to police, the 57-year-old scribe and WRKO talk-show host was driving south on Wellesley Avenue, between Oakland and Forest streets, when his 2004 Acura suddenly crossed into the oncoming lane, hit a curb, and slammed into a telephone pole. Wellesley police Sgt. Marie Cleary said Carr refused medical treatment and the car was towed. (The pole was split in half.) Carr was cited for a marked-lanes violation. "There were no signs of alcohol or anything suspicious of that nature,"...

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...

SOUTH PASADENA — A pedestrian was hit and killed by a car as he walked home from a swim Friday evening. A Cadillac driven by 85-year-old Renata Rathmann hit Christy Lizzoli, 56, of South Pasadena, about 6 p.m., just after sunset. The victim's family said he was walking home to his condo across the street after working out and swimming in the Intracoastal Waterway. Lizzoli was in a crosswalk at the time of the crash at 1893 South Shore Drive, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office reported. The 1999 Cadillac De Ville was headed south on South Shore Drive, deputies said....

Overton, Texas (AP) -- An 82-year-old man has been charged with reckless driving after being accused of barreling his pickup truck into a Cub Scout troop at a Christmas parade in Texas. Overton officials say Charles George was arraigned Tuesday and has relinquished his license as a condition of his bond. George is accused of going around a barricade near downtown Overton on Monday evening and ramming into the lined-up Scouts.

BAKERSFIELD - A trip to the market takes a tragic turn for a family in Wasco Tuesday morning after they're struck by an out of control car. According to the Kern County Sheriff Department, 30-year-old Araceli Gallardo and her two children, 4-year-old Alicia and 12-year-old Claudia, were crossing the parking lot to enter Fiesta Latina Market on Seventh Street, when a car lost control and hit them. The driver of the car fled the scene on foot, but returned shortly after to turn herself into deputies says KCSD. Meanwhile, the mother and two children were taken to Kern Medical Center...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An elderly Australian couple evaded police on a 1,400 mile journey by car and bus after setting off in protest when the wife was denied an extension of her driving license because of old age. Tom and Marian Foulkes, both in their 80s, drove from their Melbourne home in the southern state of Victoria to the north of New South Wales state and halfway back again, avoiding police searching for them. At one stage, the couple had their car keys confiscated by a police officer who thought they were disoriented, but they hit the road again, this...

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (AP) - An 80-year-old motorist crashed into the front of a beauty salon Thursday, injuring nine people. The driver and her 81-year-old husband were not hurt. According to police, Loretta Caposino made a wide turn, driving in front of oncoming traffic - and then veered to avoid hitting a car, striking the curb and crashing through the front of Simone's Salon, said police spokesman Sgt. Kenny Hayes. "The car never stopped. It just kept coming and coming," said salon owner Simone Weiss. Five people were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries; four were treated at the scene, Hayes...

<p>The number of elderly drivers in the United States is climbing dramatically, and growing numbers of states are enacting special requirements designed to ensure the driving skills of older motorists are not impaired.</p> <p>Yesterday in Florida, a state with one of the nation's largest senior populations, a new law took effect that requires drivers 80 and older to pass an eye test to renew their licenses, instead of simply renewing their licenses through the mail.</p>