I'm sure the $100 would remind them to pay attention to what they are doing, so next time they don't run over somebody's child instead of just your car. I live in Florida and see all too often old people that are driving and cause problems because of it. Many times people don't report what has happened (such as accidents) because they feel sorry for them. Here's an article from where I live from not too long ago, read it if ya get a chance:
Dateline: St. Petersburg, FL - 10/21/2005
St. Petersburg Times
Ralph Parker had shown signs of dementia before, but his condition worsened dramatically over the past week. Argumentative one minute, calm the next.
Alarmed, Parker's son left Idaho on Wednesday to get his 93-year-old father in a safe place, police said.
Before he could get here, his dad backed his gold Chevrolet Malibu out of the driveway and went for a drive.
It ended horribly. Parker hit a man crossing 34th Street S, severing the man's right leg, then drove 3 miles with the body stuck in the windshield.
When police asked Parker what happened, he said the body seemed to drop from the sky.
Parker thought it was December and that he was headed home to Pinellas Park, not south toward the Sunshine Skyway bridge, police said.
The case is an extreme example of a complicated and enduring issue in Florida and everywhere: When is someone too old to drive? Experts say there is no reliable test or quick answer.
Unless something changes, they say, the problem will only get worse.
Julia Zumpf was driving south on 34th Street about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday when she saw the gold Malibu unsteady in the road.
Drunken driver, she thought.
Then Zumpf, 44, saw a pedestrian step off the center median and head across the three-lane road.
"He didn't even walk straight across, he walked at a 45-degree angle toward the cars," Zumpf. "It reminded me of some cocky kid who walks in front of you."
The driver of the Malibu slammed on his brakes, Zumpf said.
She thought the driver missed him but suddenly she heard a crash and saw a leg flying in front of her blue Buick LeSabre.
"It went at least one story in the air," she said.
His shoe then popped off before the limb came to a rest on a strip of grass west of the street, in front of Howard Johnson's.
The driver kept going, as if not realizing what happened, Zumpf said. She drove several blocks, trying to locate the body, thinking it rolled off the car, and called 911.
"I thought it was just a hit-and-run," she said.
The body was still on the Malibu. The head and shoulders were punched through the windshield, the torso slung backward over the hood.
Three miles later, the car approached the Sunshine Skyway toll bridge. As Parker decelerated, the body slumped entirely inside, the man's face pushed up against the dash.
The macabre scene looked like a Halloween prank to the toll taker. Then she saw the blood.
Police had not released the name of the victim as of late Thursday.
He was 52 and lived at the Crystal Inn across the street from the scene of the accident. The man, often seen begging for money on 54th Avenue S, was going to McDonald's for something to eat, police said.
Residents at the hotel said his first name was Rudy. They said he was a hard drinker, but a decent man with long ties to St. Petersburg.
The fractured windshield obscuring his view, and blood streaming down the console, Parker told police he did not realize what happened until he reached the tollbooth.
Even then, he thought a body dropped from above, perhaps a pedestrian overpass, said St. Petersburg police Officer Michael Jockers.
"He may have somewhere in his mind have realized it was a crash, but immediately forgot about it," Jockers said.
Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, said it was unlikely the state would file charges.
No final decision will be made until the police investigation is completed.
To charge Parker with leaving the scene of a crash, prosecutors would have to prove he knew or should have known there was an accident. Additionally, he would have to be mentally competent to stand trial. Parker did not appear to know what happened, where he was or why he was there when he spoke with police officers, Bartlett said.
Jockers took Parker's driver's license. Short of having the state take it away forever, Parker will have to take a test to show he is still competent behind the wheel.
Parker hasn't been cited for any serious driving incidents during the past seven years, according to state records. His history is clean except for an expired tag. He last renewed his license in 2003, at the age of 91. It was set to expire in 2010.
A spokesman for the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said the agency would conduct its own inquiry into whether Parker should have had a license.
"We will investigate this vigorously to see how this could have been prevented, if at all," said spokesman Frank Penela.
