Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

From this article at CNN:

EL MONTE, California (AP) — An 85-year-old man who drove a car onto a patio at a Starbucks coffee shop and injured 10 people, two of them critically, isn’t likely to face charges, police said Saturday.

“It sounds like it’s just a simple mistake by an elderly man,” said police Sgt. Richard Williams, adding he “seriously doubts” charges will be filed.

Awww, the poor elderly man… It was just a simple mistake that injured 10 people, and probably could have killed some of them had it been worse. No reason to file charges just because someone who obviously shouldn’t be in control of thousands of pounds of high-speed metal endangered the lives of 10 people. Give him a grande soy milk whipped cappuccino triple-shot latte and an overpriced cookie (at Starbucks’ expense) and send him home.

What if this had been a 40 year-old man with a cell phone in his hand? Or a teenager with a cell phone? What if the old man was yakking it up with his respirator-bound friends at Shady Acres on a cell phone when he plowed into 10 people? Police Sgt. Dumbass would be on the phone to Sing Sing immediately, telling them to get the electric chair warmed up.

I don’t understand why some kinds of dangerous drivers are given a free pass, and other kinds have activist groups and governments of all levels bearing down on them. Injuring (or killing) 10 people because of negligent inability to control a vehicle should result in the same consequences for everyone, whatever their age, whatever hardware is in their hand. The idea that cell phones pose a special, singular threat to the driving public is absurd, and I prefer that absurdity die a painful death before it becomes yet another nanny state law enacted at the behest of do-gooders who think they know what’s best for everyone and charge government with the responsibility of protecting us from ourselves and others, instead of letting responsible adults live their lives.