|
Gray Matter
Guilty of Driving While Old—Maybe Too Old!
Q.
I am shocked that Californian George Russell Weller, nearly 90, was found guilty of ‘vehicular manslaughter’ and now may go to prison. For a road accident! Yes, it was horrific, but every one of us has accidents, correct?
A.
No, we don’t all lose control of our ‘killing machines’ (known as motor vehicles) and thereafter roar through an outdoor bazaar, causing bodily harm to 78 people.
Ten of the victims were left very dead.
Among the lifeless bodies then was a toddler of just three, a husband and wife, a woman past 80, and a homeless person. When Weller’s automobile finally stopped, some 800 feet deep inside the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, a body was discovered—wedged, or trapped, under the car.
“Listen to the dead,” prosecutor Ann Ambrose said to the jury during the emotion-packed trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Witnesses to that early afternoon of July 16, 2003, remembering 20 seconds that seemed to last a lifetime, wept as they testified about what they now can never forget. One survivor was a “market regular,” Ms. Shamsi Khani, who repeatedly chased away rescuers, saying: “Take care of the young…”
Ms. Khani, 89 at the time, was later hospitalized, suffering a broken neck. Last month, she died. Her son told newsman John Spano, of the Los Angeles Times, “The guilty verdict is good news for society.”
Dan Khani believes the Weller verdict, reached after more than a week of emotional and conflicted deliberations, delivers a message: “We are going to hold elderly people responsible for their actions.”
There you have it, in black and white. You and I were on trial in that courtroom, along with defendant George Russell Weller. Ironically, Weller wasn’t sitting at the defense table either—at least not after the first day, when he appeared in a wheelchair. He is said to be in poor, or failing, health.
(My guess: Weller may be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, explaining, perhaps, why he was manifestly guilty of failing to find the brake pedal and instead pressed extra hard on his accelerator. Several witnesses recalled that he had said, incredulously: “If you saw me coming, why didn’t you get out of the way?”)
Eleven years ago, I grew agitated over the unintended, or accidental, death of a male child of six, and the traumatic injuries inflicted upon two sisters ages four and eight, all of whom were sitting and waiting innocently for a bus. Their father, and protector, was beside them. Without warning, an 83-year-old man lost control of his speeding automobile and the machine flipped over onto their public bench, ending the lives of this family, as they once had known them.
“In the year 2010, licensed drivers older than 75 will number perhaps 17 million,” I wrote. “More than half will have cataracts; 80 percent will be on multiple medications. Consider, drugs oftentimes cause drowsiness or dizziness, or both. Many among these road warriors will be frail, unable to steer skillfully and/or reach the brake, in time.
“Logic demands something be done now, in advance of what some predict will be slaughter on our highways!”
Yes, the majority of older adults are cautious, sober citizens who drive at the posted speed limits, and avoiding thruway traffic where possible. Yes, according to friends and neighbors, George Weller is “a good man…He’s not reckless.” Nonetheless, in the words of Cornell University professor of law Stephen Garvey, “If something bad happens, there has to be somebody who is culpable.”
Can you think of anything worse than losing control of your car, permitting it to race uncontrollably through an outdoor marketplace, and then hearing the screams of the stricken and the dying?
“Let’s kill him,” one man shouted, motioning toward Weller. Mistakenly, this bystander judged the old man a terrorist. He wasn’t; was he?
NEXT UP: How do we, as a society, prevent road tragedies?
|
Outrageous Associations
