home early, but must rant
I spoke to a few people yesterday, but here's what happened at the end of work yesterday.
The Mid-continent (Dr. Pepper, Seven Up, etc.) truck had pulled in right around closing time. Half of us were moving bags indoors, half were out loading the truck with the cans and bottles their products come in. As I'm moving the last of the bags and getting ready to clock out, Virgil comes sprinting inside towards the boss, "Chet, I think Marvin's dead". Chet, the boss then sprints outside. I'm befuddled, and I follow. There's a car sticking out of the back garage, where all the cans except Pepsi's, Budweiser's, and Wal-Mart's. There's a decent sized chunk of brick knocked out of the side of the garage door, and there's a few of my coworkers talking to Marvin, who is underneath the car.
Apparently, this vehicle came barreling out of a driveway across the street, between 45 and 55 miles per hour. Everyone else manag4ed to jump out of the way. Sebrina reached to grab Marvin and pull him to safety, but when she reached he was gone. Marvin is moderately mentally retarded, has the mind of a six or seven year old, and always moves very slowly anyways. Police, fire department, and paramedics show up quickly, followed very shortly by newspeople (but we won't get into that), and we all clear the way. From what I was told, it looked like the car had broken both of his legs, possibly one of his hips, and he had some pretty nasty looking head wounds. Everyone was kind of shocked, so there weren't any concise details.
I found out the rest this morning. The driver was a 92 year old lady, who had apparently mistaken the gas pedal for the brake pedal. Not being able to react quickly enough, or being panicked, or whatever, she barreled across the street into the loading area. Tom, who wasn't there but I was working with this morning, looked at the damage and figure the car couldn't have been going more than 20 miles per hour or so, until he found that the car had turned the forklift around and shoved two large boxes of glass (each about 500 lbs. if I'm not mistaken) about three feet into the can crushing machine. The entire garage wall was pushed in and cracked.
Marvin is in good condition at the hospital. Turns out only one leg was broken, the other just looked that way in the rubble, and his hips are alright. They're not sure about the extend of his head wounds (it's hard to determine with someone who was mentally deficient to begin with). The driver, however... most of the bones in her face are broken. I didn't see a deployed airbag in the car, and it looked like an older model anyways, late eighties to early nineties, when airbags were not standard. There was also an elederly passenger in the car, I've not heard anything about her injuries or condition. She was also taken away in an ambulance.
But really, 92 years old? and driving? I think it should be mandatory that after, oh say 55 years old, you should have to retake the driving test once a year to keep your license. Some senior citizens will think that's a pain in the ass and they shouldn't have to do it, and since they're still a large chunk of the voting population it'll never happen, but after yesterday's accident I don't care. Marvin, though an incredibly lazy worker who complains all the time about just having to work and avoids as much work as possible, is still a good guy. I'm glad he's alright. I really hope that lady has VERY good insurance, and that she stops driving after this.
The Mid-continent (Dr. Pepper, Seven Up, etc.) truck had pulled in right around closing time. Half of us were moving bags indoors, half were out loading the truck with the cans and bottles their products come in. As I'm moving the last of the bags and getting ready to clock out, Virgil comes sprinting inside towards the boss, "Chet, I think Marvin's dead". Chet, the boss then sprints outside. I'm befuddled, and I follow. There's a car sticking out of the back garage, where all the cans except Pepsi's, Budweiser's, and Wal-Mart's. There's a decent sized chunk of brick knocked out of the side of the garage door, and there's a few of my coworkers talking to Marvin, who is underneath the car.
Apparently, this vehicle came barreling out of a driveway across the street, between 45 and 55 miles per hour. Everyone else manag4ed to jump out of the way. Sebrina reached to grab Marvin and pull him to safety, but when she reached he was gone. Marvin is moderately mentally retarded, has the mind of a six or seven year old, and always moves very slowly anyways. Police, fire department, and paramedics show up quickly, followed very shortly by newspeople (but we won't get into that), and we all clear the way. From what I was told, it looked like the car had broken both of his legs, possibly one of his hips, and he had some pretty nasty looking head wounds. Everyone was kind of shocked, so there weren't any concise details.
I found out the rest this morning. The driver was a 92 year old lady, who had apparently mistaken the gas pedal for the brake pedal. Not being able to react quickly enough, or being panicked, or whatever, she barreled across the street into the loading area. Tom, who wasn't there but I was working with this morning, looked at the damage and figure the car couldn't have been going more than 20 miles per hour or so, until he found that the car had turned the forklift around and shoved two large boxes of glass (each about 500 lbs. if I'm not mistaken) about three feet into the can crushing machine. The entire garage wall was pushed in and cracked.
Marvin is in good condition at the hospital. Turns out only one leg was broken, the other just looked that way in the rubble, and his hips are alright. They're not sure about the extend of his head wounds (it's hard to determine with someone who was mentally deficient to begin with). The driver, however... most of the bones in her face are broken. I didn't see a deployed airbag in the car, and it looked like an older model anyways, late eighties to early nineties, when airbags were not standard. There was also an elederly passenger in the car, I've not heard anything about her injuries or condition. She was also taken away in an ambulance.
But really, 92 years old? and driving? I think it should be mandatory that after, oh say 55 years old, you should have to retake the driving test once a year to keep your license. Some senior citizens will think that's a pain in the ass and they shouldn't have to do it, and since they're still a large chunk of the voting population it'll never happen, but after yesterday's accident I don't care. Marvin, though an incredibly lazy worker who complains all the time about just having to work and avoids as much work as possible, is still a good guy. I'm glad he's alright. I really hope that lady has VERY good insurance, and that she stops driving after this.