Miscellaneous

Keep Grandma Away from the Caddy

I love old people -- they're cute, cuddly, and smell like mentholated creme -- but it's time to start taking driver's licenses away once a person reaches the age of, say, 75. I don't mean to stereotype, but old people can't drive for shit -- and who pays? Good Samaritans.

Valerie Green, 83, pulled her 1990 Cadillac into a parking lot at the Apollo Beach Golf Club to ask for directions around 11:30 a.m.

Earl Hamm, 80, and his longtime golfing buddy, John Browning, offered to help her get turned around. As they stood near her car changing their shoes, Green apparently hit the accelerator and backed up.

Hillsborough County sheriff's reports said she kept driving in reverse, dragging Hamm under her car and then hitting a tree and a building.

Just after the crash, Green sat nearby in a yellow lawn chair. She wasn't injured.

Later, at her home, Green said she wasn't sure how she hit Hamm.

"It was like my car was driving itself," she said. "It was an accident. I'll regret it until the day I die."

Fortunately for Ms. Green, she won't have a lot time left to spend regretting the mistake.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).