Elderly Drivers a Possible Danger on the Road Too

Back in 2005, Boston Senator Brian A. Joyce attempted to pass Senate Bill 1914, aka an Act to Promote Safe Driving. But in the end there was very little support. No audience attended the legislation in October for Joyce's bill, but there were many people at a hearing the same month for stricter teen driving standards.

Although teen driving is an issue, Joyce sees the issues with elderly driving too.
In 2001, AAA found in a study that drivers over 65 were 25 percent more likely to get in an accident than middle-aged drivers. Seniors were more prone to intersection crashes and can have troubles making left turns, driving in heavy traffic or at night.

Seniors have the second highest crash death rate per mile next to teenagers, according to AAA. The association’s Web site projects that by 2020, there will be more than 40 million licensed drivers over 65 in the United States, up from 18.9 million in 2000.

Unsecured Load Causes Crash on I-90

A bucket in the road caused a car to swerve starting a chain reaction of collisions ultimately leaving 5 vehicles and a semi truck in a big wreck.

The collision blocked 2 westbound lanes of I-90 from about 3:40pm to 6:30pm yesterday.

30 minutes after the collision, medics and rescue crews were were still working to remove drivers and passengers from vehicles. 6 people were transported to Harborview Medical Center, none had serious injuries.

A pickup involved in the accident spilled about 20 gallons of paint on the roadway and a storm drain. The Department of Ecology is looking into the spilled paint.

Driver Hung Upside Down in Vehicle Overnight

A Kirkland driver was found this morning hanging upside down in his vehicle overnight after a high speed chase.

Police say they witnessed the driver run a red light and then fled police reaching speeds over 100 MPH. The driver flipped the car and crashed traveling on I-405.

Police believe alcohol was a factor.


Thank you to KIRO.

Not So Perfect Prius

This is the story of Bobette Riner, excited new Prius owner who's shiny new prized possession took a literal turn for the worst.

Bobette bought her brand-new Prius last year. She says "I felt so smug for a while. Especially being in Houston." At 2000 she could count her gas fill-ups on one hand. It was a dream. But things changed on a rainy night last fall, after just a few months of owning her new toy. She was on the way to a sales meeting coasting at 60MPH but suddenly her car started hydroplaning out of control. She looked at the speedometer and realized the speed had shot up to 84 MPH. She realized she wasn't hydroplaning; the vehicle had accelerated on its own. She hit the brakes but they were dead. Luckily the Prius shut down, lit up with warning lights leaving Bobette to fight a stiff steering wheel across four lanes of traffic and down the exit ramp.

In August 2006, Prius owner Elizabeth was driving toward Denver to catch an early-morning flight. As she was nearing the small town of Lawson, she hit the brakes to slow down but as soon as she let her foot off the pedal, the Prius took off. The car wouldn't slow down "no matter how hard I pressed on the brake," Elizabeth said. So she attempted to slam down the emergency brake with her left foot to no avail. The brakes spewed blue smoke from the rear of the vehicle. Elizabeth glanced down to read the speedometer. She was going 90 MPH headed straight for a car in the slow lane. With no other option, she whipped the car around along the shoulder of Interstate 70 taking the Lawson exit, running a stop sign and passing a few pedestrians along the way. She steered into a grassy field when the feeder cut to the left.

"She said she felt like the pilot of a plane that was trying to crash-land," her husband Ted says. "So she was looking for a place to crash the car, and that was one of the things that were really tough: She though she was going to die and had enough time to think about it."
The car sped along through a wooded area, clipped a weather monitoring shed, flipped, and landed in a river. She survived but her legs and back were severely wounded and to this day she is still hobbled, despite a year of physical therapy. Scar tissue on her intestines requires her to drink MiraLAX for the rest of her life to ease stomach pains.

Toyota spokesman Bill Kwong stated "You get these customers that say, 'I stood on the brake with all my might and the car just kept on accelerating.' They're not stepping on the brake. People are under stress right now, people have so much on their minds. With pagers and cell phones and IM, people are so busy with kids and family and boyfriends and girlfriends. So you're driving along and the next thing you know you're two miles down the road and you don't remember driving, because you're thinking about something else."

Toyota has also claimed a faulty floor mat as the cause of unexpected acceleration and in many cases denies anything is wrong with the vehicle itself. It seems they're already on the defense, but the "Prions" (Prius owners) aren't looking to sue, they just want an explanation! Ted James, who's Prius ended up in a river, rebuts "We're not the kind of people to go through a lawsuit, and it's not in our nature. Our concern was that no one else got hurt, that Toyota own up to its problem."

Besides that, faulty floor mats couldn't be the problem. Take the case of a Houston Prion who left his car parked and running in front of his garage door while he walked toward his house. The Prius suddenly surged forward, through his garage door, slamming into his Nissan Altima. Markus, the mechanic who worked on the vehicle said, "He was lucky that the Altima was parked there, because his backyard is not too long, and the neighbors had a family gathering. It would've ran right into all those people, and he was a little shook up over the situation."

Bobette isn't the only one with a frightening run in with her Prius. Read the full article from Seattle Weekly. Or read the complaints from Consumer Affairs.