Ashburton school student hit by car

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

This accident has nothing to do with the bus stop. It’s all about a driver who had no right being on the road.
Something needs to be done about elderly drivers

My parents moved to MD at 75 in 2019. They only had a vision test. No Doctors report, no road test.

It had everything to do with a bus stop at a cross street on a main road. BOE has blood on their hands.

No they don’t, the real issue is the state or county should have rules in place to determine the competence of older drivers. Maybe more of a health screening requirement after a certain age.

I don't see it happening, but I wish it would. Old people need to get medicine, food, doctors etc, right? How will they get them? As long as they vote in republicans, who need to appease their base, it won't happen. They should, at a minimum, require an eye test once you reach a certain age.

In Maryland, a vision test is already required for ages 40 and up, each time you renew (every five years). At any age, if you have a medical condition that could impact your ability to drive, you are required to disclose it. At the age 70 renewal, Maryland requires a physician's report. Your ability to drive can be limited based on medical condition or driving record. You can be forced to retake the written or road test based on medical condition or driving record. There are already limits in place, but they are not sufficient for an aging population in a car centric area. My heart breaks for this family. This is a terrible tragedy and I think our state politicians could do more to prevent future tragedies.

My parents moved to MD at 75 in 2019. They only had a vision test. No Doctors report, no road test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A statement by the driver: “I lost control, and it was out of my control,” he said, saying he was “very, very sorry.”

According to WTOP:
The driver, who said he was 82, has not been charged.

He didn't seem that sorry on the news.

Could be a sign of dementia or other mental decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A statement by the driver: “I lost control, and it was out of my control,” he said, saying he was “very, very sorry.”

According to WTOP:
The driver, who said he was 82, has not been charged.

He didn't seem that sorry on the news.

Could be a sign of dementia or other mental decline.

What did he say or do that made him not seem very sorry?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a 98 year old across the street from us who still drives.
I pray that she’s never out driving when my kids are at the bus stop at the end of our street.

Elderly drivers should definitely be under more scrutiny than they currently are. They’re a menace to public safety.

Yeah, try doing something about it, the old farts will immediately scream 'My freedums'!

With any luck, we'll all be old farts one day.

And we should all be very cognizant about our state to drive.

Both my parents and inlaws, neither of which have dementia, stopped driving a few years ago because they realized that they were getting too old to react quickly and could put someone in danger.

-51 yr old

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

This accident has nothing to do with the bus stop. It’s all about a driver who had no right being on the road.
Something needs to be done about elderly drivers

It had everything to do with a bus stop at a cross street on a main road. BOE has blood on their hands.

We used to live in the area and DH did not want our child walking to that bus stop and standing alone so we actually drove DC to school even though DC was old enough to walk to and from the bus stop alone. It is a very busy street with a lot of traffic. My heart goes out to the family.

Grosvenor Lane is busy, and the speed limit should be 25, but that is not what caused this particular accident.

But would he have been pulling on that road if it weren't a major road to begin with? Do you see how this is relevant? It may not be the main cause but the number of cars on a road does increase the chance there is an impaired driver. Other accidents that have happened recently involved bigger roads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

Where is a "safe bus stop"? This could've happened on a quiet road, too. The driver was not speeding. The driver lost control of the car. If that happens on a quiet road, even a cul de sac where kids are waiting on the curb, they would get hit.

For goodness sake. You trying to find blame on anyone else but the driver is not helping. It's like you want to blame BOE for anything and everything, like if a tree fell on a kid waiting at the bus stop because the BOE should've known that a tree could fall and hurt a child. BOE fault, right? Give it a rest.

My heart aches for the family.

100%. Enough with blaming MCPS for this.

BOE doesn’t set bus stops. MCPS has a DOT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

This accident has nothing to do with the bus stop. It’s all about a driver who had no right being on the road.
Something needs to be done about elderly drivers

It had everything to do with a bus stop at a cross street on a main road. BOE has blood on their hands.

We used to live in the area and DH did not want our child walking to that bus stop and standing alone so we actually drove DC to school even though DC was old enough to walk to and from the bus stop alone. It is a very busy street with a lot of traffic. My heart goes out to the family.

Grosvenor Lane is busy, and the speed limit should be 25, but that is not what caused this particular accident.

But would he have been pulling on that road if it weren't a major road to begin with? Do you see how this is relevant? It may not be the main cause but the number of cars on a road does increase the chance there is an impaired driver. Other accidents that have happened recently involved bigger roads.

I see your point. That particular spot on Grosvenor Lane is tricky. There is a turn lane for Grosvenor Park condominiums, is on an uphill and about a block from the intersection with Rockville Pike, which makes for intermittant streams of cars. The elderly driver might have felt pressured to step on the gas harder to make the uphill turn successfully and beat some cars. That could have been part of the midjudgment the elderly driver made. That is Route 1313 out of Bethesda bus depot, which stops on Grosvenor for the townhouse complex and then turns left to go through Grosvenor Park Condos/Townhouse/Apartments. Could the bus turn into the townhouse complex and make a loop back out rather than do the more efficient stop on Grosvenor and take the immediate left? Probably with a few extra minutes. But that doesn't eliminate all risk - maybe it is actually more dangerous to stop in a parking lot type area where cars are backing out of spaces in the morning? There are probably studies, but that is for the experts. This was a terrible freak accident that could have happened to anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't think blaming MCPS in this instance is the right call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

This accident has nothing to do with the bus stop. It’s all about a driver who had no right being on the road.
Something needs to be done about elderly drivers

My parents moved to MD at 75 in 2019. They only had a vision test. No Doctors report, no road test.

It had everything to do with a bus stop at a cross street on a main road. BOE has blood on their hands.

No they don’t, the real issue is the state or county should have rules in place to determine the competence of older drivers. Maybe more of a health screening requirement after a certain age.

I don't see it happening, but I wish it would. Old people need to get medicine, food, doctors etc, right? How will they get them? As long as they vote in republicans, who need to appease their base, it won't happen. They should, at a minimum, require an eye test once you reach a certain age.

In Maryland, a vision test is already required for ages 40 and up, each time you renew (every five years). At any age, if you have a medical condition that could impact your ability to drive, you are required to disclose it. At the age 70 renewal, Maryland requires a physician's report. Your ability to drive can be limited based on medical condition or driving record. You can be forced to retake the written or road test based on medical condition or driving record. There are already limits in place, but they are not sufficient for an aging population in a car centric area. My heart breaks for this family. This is a terrible tragedy and I think our state politicians could do more to prevent future tragedies.

My parents moved to MD at 75 in 2019. They only had a vision test. No Doctors report, no road test.

Did they report any medical conditions? That’s on them to self report. I don’t know why the state didn’t follow up to make sure that happened. Maybe they did and you’re not aware they of it. If the state has requirements that aren’t enforced, that’s a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

Where is a "safe bus stop"? This could've happened on a quiet road, too. The driver was not speeding. The driver lost control of the car. If that happens on a quiet road, even a cul de sac where kids are waiting on the curb, they would get hit.

For goodness sake. You trying to find blame on anyone else but the driver is not helping. It's like you want to blame BOE for anything and everything, like if a tree fell on a kid waiting at the bus stop because the BOE should've known that a tree could fall and hurt a child. BOE fault, right? Give it a rest.

My heart aches for the family.

100%. Enough with blaming MCPS for this.

BOE doesn’t set bus stops. MCPS has a DOT.

BOE is in charge. DOT works for BOE. You know, the guy who was busy embezzling $600k instead of evaluating dangerous bus stops. That guy. He works for the BOE. Too busy stealing to do his job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

This accident has nothing to do with the bus stop. It’s all about a driver who had no right being on the road.
Something needs to be done about elderly drivers

My parents moved to MD at 75 in 2019. They only had a vision test. No Doctors report, no road test.

It had everything to do with a bus stop at a cross street on a main road. BOE has blood on their hands.

No they don’t, the real issue is the state or county should have rules in place to determine the competence of older drivers. Maybe more of a health screening requirement after a certain age.

I don't see it happening, but I wish it would. Old people need to get medicine, food, doctors etc, right? How will they get them? As long as they vote in republicans, who need to appease their base, it won't happen. They should, at a minimum, require an eye test once you reach a certain age.

In Maryland, a vision test is already required for ages 40 and up, each time you renew (every five years). At any age, if you have a medical condition that could impact your ability to drive, you are required to disclose it. At the age 70 renewal, Maryland requires a physician's report. Your ability to drive can be limited based on medical condition or driving record. You can be forced to retake the written or road test based on medical condition or driving record. There are already limits in place, but they are not sufficient for an aging population in a car centric area. My heart breaks for this family. This is a terrible tragedy and I think our state politicians could do more to prevent future tragedies.

My parents moved to MD at 75 in 2019. They only had a vision test. No Doctors report, no road test.

Did they report any medical conditions? That’s on them to self report. I don’t know why the state didn’t follow up to make sure that happened. Maybe they did and you’re not aware they of it. If the state has requirements that aren’t enforced, that’s a problem.

Maybe you meant you only need a physicians report of they report a medical condition. I doubt they reported anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

This accident has nothing to do with the bus stop. It’s all about a driver who had no right being on the road.
Something needs to be done about elderly drivers

It had everything to do with a bus stop at a cross street on a main road. BOE has blood on their hands.

We used to live in the area and DH did not want our child walking to that bus stop and standing alone so we actually drove DC to school even though DC was old enough to walk to and from the bus stop alone. It is a very busy street with a lot of traffic. My heart goes out to the family.

Grosvenor Lane is busy, and the speed limit should be 25, but that is not what caused this particular accident.

But would he have been pulling on that road if it weren't a major road to begin with? Do you see how this is relevant? It may not be the main cause but the number of cars on a road does increase the chance there is an impaired driver. Other accidents that have happened recently involved bigger roads.

I see your point. That particular spot on Grosvenor Lane is tricky. There is a turn lane for Grosvenor Park condominiums, is on an uphill and about a block from the intersection with Rockville Pike, which makes for intermittant streams of cars. The elderly driver might have felt pressured to step on the gas harder to make the uphill turn successfully and beat some cars. That could have been part of the midjudgment the elderly driver made. That is Route 1313 out of Bethesda bus depot, which stops on Grosvenor for the townhouse complex and then turns left to go through Grosvenor Park Condos/Townhouse/Apartments. Could the bus turn into the townhouse complex and make a loop back out rather than do the more efficient stop on Grosvenor and take the immediate left? Probably with a few extra minutes. But that doesn't eliminate all risk - maybe it is actually more dangerous to stop in a parking lot type area where cars are backing out of spaces in the morning? There are probably studies, but that is for the experts. This was a terrible freak accident that could have happened to anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't think blaming MCPS in this instance is the right call.

That's what I think. King Charles Way looks narrow and windy, and there are parking spaces all around it. There really aren't any great locations for stops for this townhouse community. The Grosvenor Lane stop seems the most sensible of the options.

[Anonymous]

Lots of ageism in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of ageism in this thread.

Is it not a factor?

[Anonymous]

Another senseless death of a child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrifying. I wonder if the elderly driver had vision issues and then maybe also mixed up the gas and the brake or something. Until I saw that it was an elderly person I assumed the driver was texting or something (or maybe they were anyway). Or that someone had a seizure or a heart attack and their foot jammed on the gas. Learning that it was just sheer horrible driving is really bad.

This is not an MCPS bus stop location issue. It's an issue of an incompetent elderly driver. This driver could have jumped any curb and hit any pedestrian on any street anywhere. It's not like the stop was out on Rockville Pike. Unless we are going to make kids wait 250 feet away from the stop in the middle of a field somewhere, or install bollards along every roadway in the county, there is always going to be the potential for a horrible accident of some kind. This sounds like the kind of driver you might see on the news another day who gets the pedals confused and drives through a storefront.

Let's hope this is an impetus for making elderly drivers take steps each year to prove their fitness for continued driving. Reaction times, vision, cognitive performance, etc. Heck, all drivers. We are so lax in this country in qualifying people to operate these lethal machines with minimal training and standards compared to other countries.

If it hadn’t been a dangerous bus stop there would have been no one to hit!

Where is a "safe bus stop"? This could've happened on a quiet road, too. The driver was not speeding. The driver lost control of the car. If that happens on a quiet road, even a cul de sac where kids are waiting on the curb, they would get hit.

For goodness sake. You trying to find blame on anyone else but the driver is not helping. It's like you want to blame BOE for anything and everything, like if a tree fell on a kid waiting at the bus stop because the BOE should've known that a tree could fall and hurt a child. BOE fault, right? Give it a rest.

My heart aches for the family.

100%. Enough with blaming MCPS for this.

BOE doesn’t set bus stops. MCPS has a DOT.

BOE is in charge. DOT works for BOE. You know, the guy who was busy embezzling $600k instead of evaluating dangerous bus stops. That guy. He works for the BOE. Too busy stealing to do his job.

BOE doesn't get paid enough to micromanage.