Personal Injury Law

San Diego Car Accident Caused When Elderly Man Confuses Gas and Brake Pedals

By Ross Jurewitz

In an unavoidable auto accident, a 40-year old San Ysidro man was severely injured when an elderly driver mistook the accelerator for the brake and rammed into the injured man?s SUV parked outside a Costco on Morena Boulevard in San Diego. The car accident took place around 3:10 p.m on March 21, 2010.

The 86-year old driver Ray Ehlers was pulling out of a disabled-parking stall but shifted to neutral instead of reverse. When the car didn?t move as he stepped on the gas and revved the engine harder. In the meantime, the gear had dropped to reverse and the car peeled backward, hitting a Mercedes-Benz before ramming into Miguel Rodriguez?s family SUV, where Rodriguez and his wife were loading plants.

The impact sent the SUV spinning, and their young sons, eating pizza in the back seat, were thrown out through an open door. Ehlers ran over Rodriguez, narrowly missing Rodriguez?s wife, because the SUV was spinning around her. Rodriguez has been admitted in Scripps Hospital and is being treated for a broken pelvis, a punctured lung and internal bleeding. His sons suffered from scrapes and minor injuries. Ehlers? license has been revoked and he will not be charged with a crime.

Our office wishes Mr. Rodriguez a quick recovery. Yet again the driving ability of the elderly, as a whole, has come to light due to the inattention and negligence of an elderly driver. The fact of the matter remains that reaction times and motor skills diminish with age. Also, it is not unheard of for elderly drivers to mistake the gas pedal for the brake because they are confused or disoriented, the result of medical conditions, medications, or even the thickness of orthopedic shoes. Given these facts, how safe is it for elderly drivers to be driving? What additional steps and protections are reasonable for the public to be protected and rest assured that the number of unqualified elderly drivers has been reduced?

Full post as published by San Diego Injury Lawyer Blog on March 24, 2010 (boomark / email).