« College kid throws large mirror out of 12th-floor dorm window | Main | Man rams SUV, car into post office to get back at US government »
Elderly driver plows into deli, blames "malfunctioning" car
It's your basic gas-instead-of-brakes story, but I like the 12-photo "gallery" of the incident. (Springfield, Mo. News-Leader)
> Elderly driver says her sandal got stuck on the gas pedal
March 25, 2008 | Permalink
Comments
Maybe she was mad at the governemnt and couldn't find the post office.
Posted by: Bill | Mar 25, 2008 5:23:59 AM
From what I can gather from the photo gallery, A car went through the front window and into the dining area of the McAlister's Deli at Battlefield Road and Kansas Expressway during the lunch hour. No one was hurt.
Posted by: Greg | Mar 25, 2008 5:57:37 AM
Lol at Greg. I was just thinking the reported or photographer could have varied those captions a little! We get it.
Posted by: Lois Lane | Mar 25, 2008 6:00:17 AM
*Reporter
Posted by: Lois Lane | Mar 25, 2008 6:00:35 AM
I think after the age of 65, people should have to re-take the driver's test every 3 years.
Posted by: twerp | Mar 25, 2008 6:13:43 AM
Grey Dawn
Posted by: twerp | Mar 25, 2008 6:14:09 AM
I notice in these type of stories that it is hardly ever the driver's fault.
"The car just took off."
"My shoe got stuck between the pedals."
"I pushed hard on the brake but the car kept going."
I agree that anyone over 65 should be tested yearly through a road test. We grow complacent the longer we drive and think that we know everything about the rules of the road.
By the way, I'm 50.
Posted by: KDP | Mar 25, 2008 6:51:32 AM
What a gyp, not one photograph of the car actually in the deli.
I'm not certain it really happened. All we have is their word for it that a car entered the deli and no one was hurt.
It could have been faked for the insurance money, or to make the news.
Posted by: Lou Sussler | Mar 25, 2008 6:56:42 AM
"23 skiddoo! Four wheels, no brakes! Now, which one is the gas pedal again?"
Posted by: Phranqlin | Mar 25, 2008 7:06:01 AM
If the regular lunch rush had been there, both of them might have been hurt.
Posted by: Southernguy | Mar 25, 2008 7:33:58 AM
A Recent grandparent accompanied trip to Perkins led me to reexamine certain things in my life during the walk across the Parking Lot (Who says there are no atheists and fox holes- there are no atheists in Perkins Parking Lots. Also none in Shoney's) and also examining a possible solution- all I could come up with, aside from making sure you're well stretched in case you have to move in a hurry- is very high curbs. but, it being Perkins, high curbs would dissuade their demographic and they would go out of business. 'Entrances' to the high curbs would create concentration- a logjam- of elderly, and also ensure that the inevitable gas-mistaken-for-brake job would take out a whole slew of greybeards. I just don't have any answers.
Posted by: sometimesilie | Mar 25, 2008 7:46:20 AM
I'm up for annual senior road tests. Along with all women and Mexican painters.
Posted by: Ted | Mar 25, 2008 7:50:35 AM
A tad over-documented, but then you never know if a jury will be moved a picture of a once proud brick reduced to crumbling rubble by some huffy hussy in a hurry.
I've noticed that slowly, very slowly, parents seem to be keeping a little better handle on their brats in parking lots. Usually involving a neckwrenching yank/scream/slap combination. Not the greatest innovation in parenthood, but better than letting them play hide, seek, and squash me flat with an SUV.
Posted by: nellagain | Mar 25, 2008 7:52:56 AM
Does anybody get my South Park reference?
Posted by: twerp | Mar 25, 2008 7:53:59 AM
Do we need to?
Posted by: nellagain | Mar 25, 2008 7:55:52 AM
I do! Remember when they run upstairs and turn on the light and the car is there? Hilarious!
Posted by: sometimesilie | Mar 25, 2008 8:00:38 AM
Sorry twerp, didn't get the reference until you mentioned South Park, but I do remember the episode.
I'm in old person central down here in Palm Beach, FL. People here either drive 45 or 80 on the highway. If there were a contest I'd probably win for coming closest to going the actual speed limit.
Posted by: G-Man | Mar 25, 2008 8:20:08 AM
nell, your previous post reminds me of some sweet darwinism in action I saw on some sixty minutes type show in 2005, notably some 4 ft tall woman in an Excursion backed over her offspring and was trying to sue the auto industry to make them install rearward looking cameras. In righteous indignation she declaimed that it was only the greed of the industry that prevented them from doing this, and if it were required by law, it would only ('only!') add a mere (a paltry) 5-800$ per cost on every car sold, and as it was not mandatory, it would have cost he, personally, 2,000$ to get one for her behemoth (how unfair is life, I ask you) And she was serious. Maybe I'll burn, but I found plenty of amusement in all this. Now that I think of it, I think the story may have been posted on OSRR.
Posted by: sometimesilie | Mar 25, 2008 8:38:00 AM
She was just mad that it wasn't the Kountry Kitchen Buffet.
Posted by: kadybrownell | Mar 25, 2008 8:58:35 AM
I'll also chime in with the notion that the lazy-a$$ photog should have got down there in time to get pics of the car actually in the deli.
Posted by: thetruth | Mar 25, 2008 9:22:14 AM
All those pictures and not one of the older lady who did it.
Was anyone hurt?
Posted by: jdotglenn | Mar 25, 2008 10:41:52 AM
MORE LIKE MALFUNCTIONING DRIVER
Posted by: ULTRA | Mar 25, 2008 11:54:16 AM
Damn, at what age does one forget what side the brake pedal is on?
I made this stupid mistake when I was learning to drive. I was out driving back roads with a friend of mine when I was 15, in his car, without a driver's license and he told me to try to do a spin out on the gravel....I lost control, and when I lost control I slammed on the gas instead of the brake...ran the car off the road and into a fence pole. (bending the drive shaft). He called his Mom and said he was driving, and someone had run us off the road. I NEVER made that mistake again.
Posted by: Cherie | Mar 25, 2008 1:41:07 PM
Who thinks that the Springfield, Mo. News-Leader just bought a whole lot more bandwidth? 12 pictures of nothing (with #10 of a particulary revealing brick) is a little bit of overkill. Slow news day doesn't seem to be enough of an excuse.
Posted by: mydogFoster | Mar 25, 2008 2:09:52 PM
sts, my husband makes the BEST impression of an old person driving....it always makes me laugh! He sounds just like those old people on the South Park episode! "oooo, this isn't the way to the Kountry Kitchen Buffet...."
Posted by: twerp | Mar 25, 2008 2:11:58 PM
Grey dawn indeed.
Posted by: Joe | Mar 25, 2008 5:24:41 PM
"I'm up for annual senior road tests. Along with all women and Mexican painters."
Ted, how about elderly female mexican painters?
Posted by: A.V. | Mar 26, 2008 10:53:47 AM
I'm surprised there weren't more than 12 pictures. Everyone in the Springfield,MO area knows that there is very little "true" journalism on the NewsLeader.
Posted by: Dean | Mar 26, 2008 11:43:16 AM
