Aging Drivers
On Saturday 17th of September, a van crashed into a Cheeburger Cheeburger in Amherst, NY, killing a husband and wife, and injuring their son and a waitress. The driver, a 74 year old woman, was not injured. She apparently was parked in a parking spot in front of the restaurant, when she stepped on the gas pedal instead of the break.
I must say that I have a strong urge to want to see that woman rot in jail for the rest of her life. But sadly she will likely get off of her double manslaughter charges with a revoked drivers license and maybe a minor fine. This is mainly due to the fact that jury duty is usually only filled by poor sobs who are unemployed, lower class citizens who are often quite uneducated.
UPDATE: http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/amherst/article573052.ece Called it! A traffic violation! That should be a double manslaughter charge!
Regardless of that, the Governments solution to this 'problem' is to mandate that stores construct concrete barriers between parking lots and the store now, so that vehicles can't crash through and injure people. Typical government solution to a problem, lets cure the symptom instead of curing the actual problem. In other words they are babying everyone and installing more rubber walls and padding so that those 'stupid' citizens can't hurt themselves anymore.
The true solution is to test drivers every 5 years with a simple driving simulation 'road test'. You go into the DMV, renew your license, and have to pass a test inside a computerized simulation which tests your reflexes and sight, and ability to negotiate traffic. The test may also introduce random distractions like a cell phone going off which the driver must ignore. You should get only 1 try to pass the test, if you fail the first time you are given a conditional license which allows you to drive locally on roads with speeds no greater then 45 mph. After 7 days you may try again. If you fail 3 times in a row, your license is revoked and you must pay a 300 dollar fee to re-instate it, plus take a mandatory driving class, which you must pass, plus an actual road test with an DMV inspector.
But no... That won't happen because it makes too much sense. Lets just mandate that store owners must pay out the ass to install concrete barriers in front of their stores... the cost of which will just be passed onto the consumer... So it all works out, right?