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 Now online (2)Roger Wilco dariusgriffin ...and 121 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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SANTA MONICA, Calif. (July 17) - An 86-year-old man whose car plowed through a crowded farmers market, killing nine and injuring up to 45 others, had recently damaged his own garage with his car, police said Thursday. Police said Russell Weller told them he may have hit the gas pedal instead of the brake Wednesday, hurling victims into the air as his car careened down a street closed to traffic. ``Mr. Weller and his family want to express their deepest sympathies to the victims and their families of the tragic accident earlier today,'' Weller family attorney Jim Bianco said in a statement Wednesday. ``This was an unintentional and unfortunate accident.'' Eight victims were pronounced dead at the scene and a ninth, a 50-year-old man, died later at a St. John's Hospital, spokeswoman Barbara Bishop said. Fourteen others were critically injured. Weller was not arrested, but authorities were considering whether the case was ``manslaughter of some type'' and investigating whether he was qualified to drive, said Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. ``There may be some negligence as to his capacity to drive safely,'' Butts said, although he added that Weller, of Santa Monica, has a valid driver's license. Police searching Weller's home for medications and evidence of his fitness to drive found that Weller recently ``struck the back of his garage at least twice'' with his car, Butts said Thursday on ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' He didn't elaborate on how investigators knew Weller was to blame for the mishaps. ``Unless there's intent later proven, I think what we're going to find is we have an 86-year-old driver that may not have been as competent as he needed to be to drive,'' Butts said on the show. ``So we're pursuing this as if it were a criminal act. But we're going to let the facts speak for themselves and we'll sort this out at the end.'' Weller told police he was leaving a nearby post office and didn't realize until too late that the street was closed for the market, |
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Weller told police he was leaving a nearby post office and didn't realize until too late that the street was closed for the market, Butts said. Weller was taken to a hospital for a blood test, and initial results found no traces of alcohol or psychoactive drugs such as antidepressants and hallucinogens. Mary Roney, who has lived two doors down from Weller and his wife for 30 years, said he has never had any trouble driving and she did not know of any health problems. ``A more careful, gentle, loving person you'll never find,'' said Roney, who described him as active in the community, including serving on a library board and tutoring students at Santa Monica High School. Butts said he did not have an estimate of the car's speed. Witnesses said Weller's 1992 Buick was moving very fast down the three downtown blocks of Arizona Avenue that were closed for the street market. ``Sixty miles per hour and it wasn't slowing down. It was flying. And then people down, dead and everything,'' said David Lang, manager of a shoe store along the market route. ``I heard a car just hit, bang, bang, bang,'' said Mojgan Pour, 38. ``I heard people screaming. By the time I looked, I never even saw the car. I tried to help a man and he died while I was helping him.'' Weller left police headquarters by late afternoon. Walking unsteadily with a cane, he hugged and smiled at people who picked him up from the police station. He declined to comment to a reporter. The market, which takes place Wednesdays and Saturdays, bisects oceanside Santa Monica's popular Third Street pedestrian promenade and is near the famous Santa Monica Pier. It draws thousands of shoppers and was slated to close just as the incident occurred at 2 p.m. The nine dead - five women, three men and a 3-year-old girl - were not identified. Police said 20 to 30 people had moderate or light injuries. They were taken to four hospitals by a fleet of ambulances and rescue helicopters. A witness, Bahram Manahedgi, 50, said one person wa |
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A witness, Bahram Manahedgi, 50, said one person was on the hood of the car when it finally came to rest after the incident. A woman's body was crushed beneath the vehicle. Manahedgi said that when he went to pull the driver out, ``His eyes were open and he was alive. I said, 'Do you know what the hell you did?' He said, 'No.' I just opened the door, I pulled him out.'' A crowd gathered around the car and ``wanted to beat him up,'' Manahedgi said. ``I said, 'He's an old man, leave him alone.''' |
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sounds like he'd been playing carmageddon too much |
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isn't that fucked up though? how can you do that much shit by just hitting the wrong pedal? |
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because those american cars aren't designed for going around corners really are they? |
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http://www.theposnetwork.com/main.html from our 106.3 metal station insane photo!! |
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a friend of mine got pinned between an espresso cart and a brick wall by an old man who mistook the gas pedal for a brake peddal. it's too easy to get a driver's liscence in this country. |
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man, i've got a million sick jokes running thru my head, but i'm gonna keep it shut cos it's fucking horrible |
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My gran drove through the back of her birck garage cause she pressed the wrong pedal, and she drives an automatic ! |
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FUCKING AMERICANS DIE!!! T($#*FD(&^969~!!!! LOLX! |
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NO ! |
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HOW the FUCK can you kill NINE FUCKING people by hitting the wrong pedal?! That's insane!!!! I don't believe it :-O must be somethin else going on. |
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nexus:there is a simple explanation. HES AN AMERICAN!!! LOLXX BUSH SUXX0R!!!! |
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you're not funny |
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the simple explanation is HE'S FUCKING OLD!!! I don't know how things work over in Europe, but in the states you're only required to get your eyes tested for license renewel (and that once every four years). Age doesn't matter, no actual driving tests needed. Between 16 years of age and death, barring any tickets or accidents, you'll never have to pass a driving 'skill' test again. Just an eye sight test every couple of years. That's insane. I'm sure eyesight at an old age works like the richter scale, it just gets exponetially worse. The difference between your sight at 80 and 84 could conceivably be HUGE. I'd take my chances and ride in the car with a 15 year old punk and his learner's permit before riding with a moldy oldy thank you. |
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was i trying to be funny? |
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yes, you said LOL. |
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in england up until a few years ago you didnt need a driving licence if you was over 100 or something like that because of a loop hole in the law where you was born before licencing was introduced |
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but Herb, you are a 'moldy oldy' |
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``His eyes were open and he was alive. I said, 'Do you know what the hell you did?'" dramatic hippies, of course he knew what he did, he just did it. Instead of questioning some old man, why don't you help the hurt people. In any event, tragic, and I'm sure we'll hear huffing and puffing from the government for a week, and nothing will come of it. |
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that old man's gotta feel pretty salty |
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Never underestimate octogenerians. |
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The marketplace is two blocks away from where a friend of mine works :-\ Yet another reason why people should have to take a drivers test again when they hit 65 or something. |
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I dont work too far from there!Its pretty fucked up! |
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this man is a mass murderer how many other people are out there, patiently awaiting their turn to "hit the wrong pedal" once they become old enough to use age as excuse to fulfill their psycopathic fantasies? |
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