Sunday, July 19, 2015

We need to test older drivers for fitness: 78-year old woman drove her car at gas station pump, starting massive fire in Portland, Oregon













PORTLAND, Ore. -- 

A woman had to be rescued after she drove her car into a gas station pump, starting a fire Saturday afternoon in Portland.

A 78-year-old woman drove into the pump at 2:15 p.m. at a Chevron gas station located at 7200 Southwest Beaverton Hillsdale Highway, according to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.


Fire at Beaverton Chevron Joshua McCool
An attendant immediately shut off the flow of gas to the pump, TVF&R said.

The woman was trapped in her car until a bystander broke a car window and pulled her to safety, according to TVF&R.

"Had this individual not broken out the window and pulled the patient out of the burning car and to safety, I don't believe she would have survived," said TVF&R Battalion Chief Leonard Damian. "His actions were nothing short of heroic."

The woman was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, TVF&R said. She was released from the hospital Saturday night.

Elderly drivers cause many accidents.  We need to force drivers to take driving refresher courses every 5 years or more often.  Drivers must also be tested for eye-sight, hearing, drugs, etc.  Many thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries would be prevented if we do so.  Please remember that a vehicle is a lethal weapon and only a regularly-trained, capable and fit person should operate it.