84 Year Old Crashes Van Into Diner (Foot Slipped)

[matcom]

:eyes:

<snip>

LANCASTER - A Mount Vernon man drove his vehicle into the front of a Lancaster restaurant Monday afternoon, an accident that miraculously resulted in no injuries.

Estill Trail, 84, otherwise known as "Hammer Handle," has been a permanent fixture in front of the White Barn for years, selling wooden handles and other odds and ends out of his car. The diner, owned by Donna Hopkins and Wanda Shelton, is attached to the Garrard County Stockyards on U.S. 27.

"I jumped up and ran," said Susan Denney, a customer who was having lunch with her husband, daughter and 2-year-old grandson when glass started flying throughout the diner. "The van ended up stopping about two feet from where we were sitting."

Denney said it's amazing that no one was hurt. "Some of us brushed glass off our heads and faces, but no one was even cut."

Trail pushed the gas long enough to go over the curb and through the front of the diner, leaving a black indention in the concrete where his back tire spun.

Denney said the air was nothing but smoke for minutes.

Bradley Hopkins Jr., the owner's son, was hammering up a temporary door and wall until the building front could be permanently fixed.

"He said he hit the gas instead of the brakes, so it was just a bad mistake," Hopkins said.

http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=18695&format=html

[kick-ass-bob]

1. Damn geezers shouldn't be allowed to drive once they hit age

60.


:hide:

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. All the more reason that people should have to retake eye and

road tests when getting their licenses renewed.

WI does it with older people, but I don't know what the age is when it begins.

I think it's just sensible. And should be done for all ages, really.

Younger people might do reckless and dumb things; but the older people can do the reckless and dumb things without ever realizing that they've just done something reckless and dumb.

I find myself looking around and seeing where the elderly people are on the road in relation to me, and being cautious around them. Almost got nailed by one yesterday - he was in the turn lane, I was next to him in the straight ahead lane - he went straight, as did I, and he damn near killed me as we had to merge into the one lane and when he then decided to swing in front of me to take an immediate right turn into a parking lot. :grr: