Sorry MZ, I had to share this I am too in shock and sad!
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A 93-year-old driver apparently suffering from dementia fatally struck a pedestrian and drove for three miles with the man's body through his windshield, police said.
Ralph Parker was stopped after he drove through a tollbooth on the Sunshine Skyway, Traffic Homicide Investigator Michael Jockers said. The toll taker called police, he said.
Parker was not likely to face charges because he did not appear to know what happened or where he was, said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney's Office.
"He may have somewhere in his mind have realized it was a crash, but immediately forgot about it," Jockers said.
The victim's leg was severed in the Wednesday night crash, police said. The man, whose name was not released, was 52.
Parker had renewed his license in 2003.
"That was the one thing he had, to get in his car and just drive for the sheer enjoyment of driving," Jockers said. Parker lived alone after his wife died in 1998, authorities said.
Nah, there's no way Mz would've read that one, so no worries there. She wouldn't have been able to get through it. I'm not sure if she told you, but a month ago her mother in law did something very similar, though not as gruesome. Her mother in law drove from northern Indiana to St. Louis and didn't even realize she wasn't in Indiana anymore. The police found her driving on the sidewalk through a park, and she only stopped when she got stuck in a ditch. Mz had to drive to St. Louis at 1am to go get her and bring her back. Since then, she's been diagnosed with dementia, had her license taken away, and guardianship placed with her daughter, Mz's sister in law. So, this article really stikes home for Mz that her mother in law really got lucky that she or no one else was hurt. The big difference is that Mz's mom in law is only 64.
I was in a bowling league a couple of years ago. There was a guy in his 70's that had Alzheimers, best darn bowler I have ever seen! His team would just point him towards the lane and away he went.
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Sometimes, when i'm lonely... i crawl into a laundry basket and tickle my ears. But, Some times I don't...
