Sunday, July 9, 2006; Posted: 8:28 a.m. EDT (12:28 GMT)
NEW LONDON, Connecticut (AP) -- An 89-year-old man driving through a crowd at a summer festival panicked after striking one pedestrian and lurched his station wagon through the throng, injuring 27 people, city officials and witnesses said.
Ned Lamont, who is challenging three-term incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman in the August 8 Democratic primary, and several campaign workers were among those in the crowd.
Lamont, who was campaigning at festival, was not injured, but three of the staffers were treated for various injuries, spokeswoman Liz Dupont-Diehl said.
The accident happened about 3:30 p.m. near the Amtrak station during New London's Sailfest summer festival, where a crowd had gathered on both sides of warning gates as a train passed, witnesses said. Once the train departed and the gates lifted, the pedestrians and the Chevrolet Caprice wagon both began to cross.
Mayor Elizabeth Sabilia said the driver, Robert Laine, was driving across the tracks to get to the Fishers Island ferry when his car struck a pedestrian.
"He panicked," she said.
The car then lurched through the crowd, which witnesses said was about four- or five-people deep.
"People were facing the tracks and didn't see the car coming," witness Bill Hoezel told The Day of New London. "The car was moving probably 10 to 15 miles per hour, much quicker than someone trying to edge through a crowd. There was no warning and no screaming, just thump-thump-thump as the bodies were hit."
The injured were taken to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital and all were expected to be treated and released by late Saturday night, hospital spokesman Kelly Anthony said.
Laine, of Wallingford, and a female passenger were not injured.
Terrie Castagna, 43, a former paramedic, helped with first aid until emergency crews arrived. She said Laine told her the gas pedal in his car was stuck.
"He was shaken. He was in shock," she said.
Police said it was premature to point to a cause and were still interviewing witnesses and many of those struck. Investigators will also look at any video that may have been captured by surveillance cameras used by Amtrak and the Fishers Island ferry.
"It was a very chaotic scene," police Capt. Kenneth Edwards said. "There were luckily a large number of emergency personnel in the area."
The waterfront city's Sailfest festival attracts thousands of visitors.
Posted by: USMCTrooper
NBC News reported that drivers 70+ are now ranked 2nd for the number of fatalities across all age groups at 25 per 100,000 people. Teen drivers are # 1 but not by a large margin, 30 per 100,000.
Posted by: KozmoKramer
Reminds me of the Caruso crash in Stoneham last fall. The news of that crash stayed with me for days. All you think of is your own kids in that scenario.
I voted yes on your poll Trooper, but I would be more comfortable voting for it if it were over 70. Those 5 years make a big difference from what I have seen just in my own family.
Posted by: Andy0921
I was there when it happened. It was crazy! heres a updated news article.
New London — The crowd waiting to cross the train tracks never saw it coming. Headed down toward the waterfront for Sailfest festivities, they had just watched a train pass when a Chevrolet station wagon driven by an 85-year-old man lurched toward them from behind.
“Nobody was on the horn. There was no warning, just bang, bang, bang,” said William Hoelzel, a Day employeewho watched as 28 people were injured. “It just shows that people can lose control. Cars can leave the road.”
Police said they were still investigating the cause of the crash Sunday. Mayor Beth A. Sabilia said she has learned from city officials that the car's floor mat was “all bunched up near the accelerator.”
Reached at home in Wallingford Sunday, the driver, Robert Laine, said he was upset and didn't want to discuss the incident.
Neighbors in the elderly housing complex where he lives, said they had met with him after church Sunday morning.
“He said he just prayed for everyone last night,” said Lena Bacci.
Lillian Greatorex said Laine had given her the same account of the accident, that the mat underneath the gas pedals had “stopped him from stopping.”
Laine drove to New London to meet his grandson, who has a boat on Fishers Island, to bring him a part for his boat, she said.
“He's just in tears,” Greatorex said. “He wouldn't hurt anybody.”
Both neighbors said they weren't aware of Laine suffering from any physical problems.
Police said that the possibility of filing charges against Laine would be a long way off, said Capt. Kenneth Edwards.
Police still have to review victim statements, examine the vehicle, and reconstruct the accident, Edwards said. He said the accident report had not been completed.
He declined to comment on Laine's account of the accident, but said Laine was experiencing “no physical problems at this time.”
Police gave his age as 89 on Saturday, but on Sunday they said records show he is 85.
A spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Bill Seymour, said he could not access information about Laine's driving record Sunday. But he said the DMV would be contacting police to determine if the incident will require a medical review of Laine's license.
All but one of 27 the accident victims taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital were released Saturday night, said hospital spokesman Kelly Anthony. They suffered from injuries ranging from bruises and lacerations to broken bones.
One woman, Susan Goldman, of Norwich, who was working on U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont's campaign, suffered a concussion and leg injuries and was released Sunday. She was one of three campaigning for Lamont who was sent to the hospital, said a Lamont spokeswoman. Lamont himself was 5 or 6 feet away, she said.
Another victim drove to The William W. Backus Hospital, and was treated and released.
A similar but deadly accident in 2003 prompted several states to consider restrictions on elderly drivers.
In 2003, an 87-year-old California man killed 10 pedestrians and injured 63 others when he drove through an open air market. George Russell Weller, who will stand trial in September on 10 felony counts of vehicular manslaughter, has pleaded not guilty, claiming he accidentally stepped on the gas rather than the brake during the crash.
About 15 states require license renewals to occur more frequently for older drivers. Other states do not allow older drivers to renew licenses by mail. Still others require regular vision tests after a certain age. In Connecticut, however, no such restrictions exist, Seymour said.
In any accident where there may be medical issues involved, the DMV would only take action on a license if they were alerted by some authority, Seymour said. The police could pull a license, a doctor could notify the DMV, or a witness could sign an affidavit that they have seen a person driving erratically, as a consistent pattern.
The driver's license is not always taken immediately, he said. Sometimes the DMV requires forms to be completed or further testing, depending on the situation.
“None of this is age specific,” he said. “There's no testing of drivers at a specific age simply because they've arrived on that age.”
State Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, said she believes the current laws work well, but acknowledged that eye exams could be valuable at a certain age.
“It's a difficult thing because everybody ages differently,” she said. “Not everyone is in the same physical condition.”
She said some people view such laws as discrimination. If enough data emerged that a change in the law would be valuable, she said the law should be re-examined. “It's a very difficult thing to take someone's driver's license away...because it means their freedom,” Stillman said
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