A 93-year-old driver apparently suffering from dementia fatally struck a pedestrian, then continued driving through a toll booth with the man's body on his windshield, police said.

 

Ralph Parker, of Pinellas Park, drove for three miles Wednesday night after striking the 52-year-old pedestrian with his gold 2002 Chevrolet Malibu, severing the man's right leg, police said.

 

A toll taker on the Sunshine Skyway saw the body stuck through Parker's windshield and notified police, Traffic Homicide Investigator Michael Jockers said.

 

Authorities did not identify the pedestrian.

 

Parker was hospitalized overnight with minor scrapes, and was expected to be taken to an elder care facility, Jockers said.

 

Charges were not likely to be filed, because Parker did not appear to know what had happened, where he was nor the correct date, said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney's Office.

 

``He may have somewhere in his mind have realized it was a crash, but immediately forgot about it,'' Jockers said.

 

Police took Parker's license, which he renewed in 2003.

 

``That was the one thing he had, to get in his car and just drive for the sheer enjoyment of driving,'' Jockers said. Parker lived alone after his wife died in 1998, according to authorities.

 

A spokesman for the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said the agency would conduct its own inquiry into whether Parker, who otherwise had a clean driving record, should have had a license.

 

Seniors age 80 or older must pass only a vision test when renewing a Florida driver's license.

If young people got out and voted, we could pwn the AARP and have our governments listen to us instead of the old people. Then we could pass some sort of maximum age/minimum competency test for senior citizens.

If young people got out and voted, we could pwn the AARP and have our governments listen to us instead of the old people. Then we could pass some sort of maximum age/minimum competency test for senior citizens.

 

Has to be competency...I know some 90-somethings that are in excellent physical/mental condition.

If young people got out and voted, we could pwn the AARP and have our governments listen to us instead of the old people. Then we could pass some sort of maximum age/minimum competency test for senior citizens.

 

Has to be competency...I know some 90-somethings that are in excellent physical/mental condition.

 

I know way too many who couldn't drive from their driveway to their house.

So because this old man had no idea where he was and what day it was, and apparently didn't even notice he was driving with a person on his windshield they won't press charges?

 

This is the equivalent of a young person driving completely plastered, so why the mercy? He was competent enough to renew the license, should be competent enough to go to jail, end his misery.

A toll taker on the Sunshine Skyway saw the body stuck through Parker's windshield and notified police, Traffic Homicide Investigator Michael Jockers said.

 

It's amazing to me that they let him through the toll booth instead of stopping him right then and there.

Whats the point on pressing charges on him hes gonna die any day now.

 

Whats the point on pressing charges on him hes gonna die any day now.

A toll taker on the Sunshine Skyway saw the body stuck through Parker's windshield and notified police, Traffic Homicide Investigator Michael Jockers said.

 

It's amazing to me that they let him through the toll booth instead of stopping him right then and there.

 

Alot of Toll Booths are automated and/or electronic.

he probaly had sunpass

I had a point to make, but with that pic in your sig, I'm just going to hang it up. That is like 100th time ive seen that pic too and it distracts me everytime...

 

My point, yeah driving test requirements at all stages are way too easy, I really didn't start to be a competant driver till a few years (and a few accidents) after I got my liscense. Even then I was competant, not neccessarily very safe.