Posted by Paul Morphy, a resident of the Menlo Park: Linfield Oaks neighborhood, on Sep 30, 2008 at 6:12 pm

The community is very lucky no one was on the sidewalk between the 91-year-old driver and the Flegel's window when this happened. I know it's not PC to point the finger at aging drivers but this driver is probably someone who needs to hang up his license. Clearly, if he "hit the gas" to back up with the force that sent him over the curb and through the store window, bad things were going to happen regardless which direction the driver found himself moving in.

PM

Posted by Alice, a resident of the Menlo Park: University Heights neighborhood, on Sep 30, 2008 at 8:40 pm

Wasn't there another incident of an elderly (80+ year old) driver in a haze of similar confusion plowing into Starbucks on Avy recently? There have been a number of such incidents, in fact, all over the Bay Area and elsewhere. When are we going to start recognizing the need to test elderly drivers more often and more rigorously?

I recently learned that in Ireland the maximum age for driving legally is 78. In this country of limited mass transit choices, I think that might be too severe, but still, Ireland's law is based on a reasonable premise. If we have to accommodate the 80+ year old driver to a certain degree because of our lack of mass transit, we at least need to redouble our effort to ascertain that older people are still capable of driving safely.