Single-Vehicle Accident Sends Elderly Couple to UHNBC
Elderly couple went to hospital after their truck ended up on top of boulder at Massey and Nicholson. Photos 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Police are waiting to hear from health officials to determine whether a medical issue might have been the cause of a single-vehicle accident at Massey and Nicholson around 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon.
An elderly couple was transported to University Hospital of Northern BC to be checked out after their pick-up truck wound up atop one of the large boulders bordering the boulevard outside the parking lot of the China Taste Restaurant.
RCMP Sergeant Todd Cruch says “it looks like the guy tried to avoid a collision and ended up here, so we’re not sure if it’s medical or what. There is a husband and a wife and the male was driving. They indicate that they went to come across here and tried to avoid a collision, but how do you end up way over here trying to avoid a collision? Some of it doesn’t make sense. He’s pretty old so it might be a medical issue there, we’re not sure.”
Investigators are trying to determine why pick-up crossed median and stopped in parking lot
Sgt Cruch says the truck came onto Massey from the parking lot kitty corner to the restaurant “and comes across the grass meridian in the centre. There’s no criminality here, it’s a single vehicle, nobody else collided.” He also says there is no suspicion of alcohol involvement in the incident.
The driver of an older model Thunderbird, the vehicle the truck driver says he was trying to avoid, remained on scene and spoke with officers. They indicate he told them that he was driving on Massey, headed toward Ospika, when the pick-up came out of the parking lot and narrowly missed hitting him. The truck then crossed the median and came to a halt atop the boulder.
Comments
A lot of close calls happening with the Elderly lately.. One was parked in middle of intersection today for what appeared to be no reason. He left soon as someone honked at him
I saw one this week as well, he was parked around 6 feet away from the curb in front of Cedar Towers he had traffic piled up behind him for a long way. I parked and walked up to see if he was broken down and tried to get him to move closer to the curb but was met with a rather angry attitude. I ended up calling 911. When the R.C.M.P got there I left to take care of business but I wonder what his issue was still.
Interesting that neither the Citizen or this site reported anything on the fellow that was struck at 15th and Carney St. on Thursday.I’m wondering if the fellow is still breathing or not. He was struck pretty hard.
I wonder who the thumbs down brigade crew consists of. Should make for a lively discussion when Friday comes around.
Here are statistics compiled from US CDC (Centre for Disease Control) 2014data compared to 2012 US census age demographic bins. The reason I use US stats is because the Canadian ones are not that easy to find. Also due to the sample size the US statistics would tend to be more meaningful, although the driving conditions in the US are slightly different than those in the USA.
The second column shows the percentage of total crash involvement per 100,000 miles
The third column shows the percentage of the total population for the age group
The fourth column show the increase or decrease of crash involvement compared to the age group proportion of population.
16-19 : 10.9% : 8.6% : 2.3%
20-24 : 11.8% : 8.8% : 3.0%
25-29 : 10.1% : 8.5% : 1.6%
30-34 : 8.9% : 8.2% : 0.6%
35-39 : 7.9% : 7.7% : 0.2%
40-44 : 7.5% : 8.3% : -0.8%
45-49 : 7.0% : 8.7% : -1.7%
50-54 : 6.4% : 9.0% : -2.6%
55-59 : 5.9% : 8.2% : -2.4%
60-64 : 5.4% : 7.1% : -1.7%
65-69 : 4.4% : 5.5% : -1.1%
70-74 : 4.2% : 4.0% : 0.2%
75-79 : 3.9% : 3.0% : 1.0%
80-84 : 3.5% : 2.4% : 1.2%
85+ : 2.2% : 2.0% : 0.2%
The take away from this is:
1. the age group from 40 to 69 is proportionately (to their age group representation) less likely to be involved in crashes.
2. The age groups from 35 to 39 and 70 to 74 both exceed the crash involvement to age group representation in the same amount 2%
3. The age groups of 16 to 29 exceed the crash involvement to age representation of total population by significantly more than the age group of 70 to 85+
4. A driver is more likely to be involved in a crash with a person in any of the age range bins below 60 than those above 60.
Insurance claims provide another view of crashes of all severities. Property damage liability claims are filed when an at-fault driver damages someone else’s property. Collision coverage insures one’s own vehicle against loss caused by a crash. Drivers ages 60-64 have the lowest rates of property damage liability claims and collision claims per insured vehicle year. Rates start increasing after about age 65. However, older drivers’ insurance claim rates are much lower than rates for the youngest drivers.
Try doing some homework before making comments based on few facts other than anecdotal observations. There is plenty of data out there which studies driving habits, crashes, etc. Most of them sort the information by age groups.
So, there is a hint at why the thumbs down.
That should read: “the driving conditions in the US are slightly different than those in Canada.”
I have been trying to clue Mike Morris in- THE MOST DEADLY THING ON THE ROAD TODAY IS SENIORS. Morris is in denial !!! Somehow seniors believe for them driving is a right. Every driver over 69 should be forced to take a cognitive test at least once a year.
The multiple car pile up at the Salmon Valley bridge last summer was a senior who came to a dead stop in the middle of the bridge. Thus the carnage behind him- then he drove away unaware of what he had caused !!!!
Its like Mr. Magoo out there with seniors driving
Maybe you haven’t heard, but if you drive your vehicle into the back end of another vehicle, you bear a great deal of the responsibility. You’re supposed be in care and control of your vehicle at all times. The inability to avoid colliding with a vehicle moving in the same direction ahead of you is often due to following too close or not paying attention. Anything can happen to cars ahead of you; mechanical failure, tire blowout, medical issue, wildlife, etc.. It’s up to you not to run into other people on the road. That’s why there are safe following distances.
Sometimes there can be negligence on the part of the driver you run into, but if you rear end someone on the highway I hope to hell you’re embarrassed by your driving, because you should be.
I do not know why he stopped.
No matter what the reason, the pile up occurred because the vehicles behind were driving too close to allow them to stop in time. Remember, someone could be going 110km/hour and jam on the brakes to avoid an animal or something large lying on the road while there was oncoming traffic in the other lane.
Quit daydreaming while driving.
The standard of laying blame in rear end collisions are the drivers from behind. There is a very good reason for that.
Bald Eagle. If you want to take the time to look at the statistics you would see that Senior drivers are no better or worse than the average young person who drives like a fool, or the average age person who never learned to drive in the first place.
If some people would just drive according to the rules, and forget all this BS about gunning up the highway on the left passing everything on the road, being in a big hurry to get nowhere to do nothing, things would be a lot better on our highways.
We know as an example that its not the seniors who speed, run the orange, or use hand held devices while driving.
I have been involved in three collisions in the past 4 years, none were my fault, the people who smashed into me admitted full responsibility, and my guess is that they were either daydreaming, texting, or sleeping.
In any event the seniors are no more responsible for accidents than any other group in this town, so if you want to hob nob with Mike Morris, you should include all drivers.
The ratio between senior drivers and the total number of drivers in BC makes in absolutely impossible for seniors to be the worst drivers on the roads to-day,. Most accidents are caused by speed, alcohol, and texting.
So Bald Eagle basically doesn’t know what he is talking about, and I suggest that he listen to Mike Morris, who it seems has an understanding of the causes of accidents in BC.
Whether you agree with his politics or not, Mr. Morris also has the insight of a retired RCMP member who probably attended more than his fair share of accident scenes.
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