Fix Conditions That Led to Market Tragedy

Regarding Wednesday’s tragedy at the farmers market in Santa Monica: Ten people killed by a runaway car. What a tragedy! An elderly man was responsible. But didn’t his car have something to do with it? Every year the swarm of autos grows. And every year the new cars are faster. The power that rockets them from one signal to another is incredible. Before the old folks are bullied off the road, shouldn’t we try slowing the darned things down and forcing manufacturers to design a tough, golf-cart-size city car? There is no reason why traffic can’t be regulated to flow more efficiently than this jump-and-stop stupidity.

Church is eight miles from our house. The trip takes 30 minutes -- 16 miles per hour. Our doctor is 14 miles away. That trip sometimes takes an hour -- 14 mph. And we do up to 70 mph for two miles on the freeway -- along with the monster trucks.

Carleton H. Ralston

Los Angeles

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Wednesday’s devastation should be a wake-up call to our legislators and senior-citizen lobbyists. It is scientifically indisputable that with age comes reduced sense acuity and reaction time. We require driving tests of our teenagers; why not of our senior citizens? I strongly believe that everyone over the age of 65 should be required to take driving, vision and response-time tests every five years before being recertified to drive.

Such a requirement would add to DMV costs, but those costs should be paid by the senior citizens who wish to continue to drive. Driving is a privilege, not a right, and some minimal assurance that the drivers on our highways are capable of adequately controlling speeding machinery is not too much to ask.

Margaret Manning

Los Angeles

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I agree that the accident that occurred at the farmers market in Santa Monica was horrendous. But I don’t agree with the media focusing on the fact that it happened because of an elderly driver. People of advanced years need to drive for independent living. Please don’t judge everyone by a few random incidents.

Margie Riendeau

North Hollywood

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The tragedy that occurred in Santa Monica might have been prevented. There are warning signs, indicators of increasingly diminished capacity in seniors. My beloved father, at 82, a brilliant former journalist with a perfect driving record (not one ticket or accident in over 50 years of motoring), began to hit the posts in his condo garage. Warning one. Then, he got lost ... a lot.

Against his and my mother’s wishes I took him for a neurological geriatric evaluation. We all cried as the neurologist told my father he should never drive again. His reflexes were impaired. Depressed, robbed of his mobility, he obeyed. If he blamed me, so be it. Wednesday, I kept seeing my father behind the wheel of that killer car.

We must change the laws. It should not be up to a daughter to take away the keys.

Jane Singer

Venice

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Perhaps elderly drivers would not be so reluctant to give up their driving privileges if we had a decent public transportation system.

It is truly appalling that there are no alternatives available for so many people, other than a private automobile, for getting from one place to the next.

Lea Osborne

Woodland Hills