Originally published at: Confused driver takes her SUV inside a shopping mall (video) | Boing Boing
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Why would the police let her drive out at this point? She shouldn’t be driving if she can be this confused.
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Aw, this must have been so embarrassing.
Dementia isn’t really an on/off thing. Sometimes folks can be incredibly “together” while other times confusion can set in.
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What gets me is when she first entered she was driving slow and stopped when some people walked by yet nobody approached her to see if she needed help.
When I was a kid I was at the grocery store with my great aunt, as she pulled out of the parking lot the car in front of her stopped and she hit it because her reflexes were shot. No damage, no injuries but when we got home she gave the keys to my dad and said she shouldn’t be driving anymore.
She had friends and family and her town had a senior service that would take her to the store or appointments.
My point is, the woman should not be driving but in our society a lot of older people really have no other choice in a lot of situations.
My stupid county had people actively trying to defund our county’s senior services because taxes.
Idiots.
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The driver in the video of the car reversing toward the exit is not a 80-something year old lady. Pretty sure it’s a police officer.
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I have never seen pedestrian mall doors that would admit a car? How on earth did she get inside?
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I’ve seen cars on display in malls, so at least some of the doors must have been capable of admitting a car if opened for it. I can imagine automatic doors based on movement will open for a car as easily as a person.
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From the article…
Police said the white Lincoln MKX entered the mall through a pedestrian bridge from the south garage.
“Due to a recent accident, one of the safety bollards was missing from the front of the entrance,” police explained.
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Who cares? Pull her license. I’m sure there are 15 year olds who can be incredibly “together,” but we don’t let them drive, either. We don’t even give them the opportunity.
Of course, but they don’t bring them in through the normal pedestrian doors. Malls have loading docks and freight elevators.
The normal automatic doors are person-sized.
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Sorry, let me clarify. Sometimes people suffering dementia can be incredibly “together” when around the folks who are/should be in control of their welfare, and perhaps those folks haven’t really noticed yet because it can happen gradually.
Of course pull her license if it’s proven the person is impaired. I never meant to imply otherwise.
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One of the posted tweets says
police backed her suv out and had her license suspended by the registry
I mean, it’s right there.
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Videos from witnesses showed police backing the car down the corridor to get it out of the building.
… in the original BB blog post, no less!
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(Heroically resisting the urge to make a possibly offensive joke about the size of some USians vs the size of some very small compact cars, but realising this was an ‘SUV’ even though it wasn’t really that large an SUV, which these days seems to just mean ‘higher ride height’ however large or small it is… where was I? Oh yeah - not making that joke. Oh no!) 
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She says she was on the way to the Apple store.
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Probably just drifted in.
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If she gets in legal trouble, she needs to hire the Lincoln Lawyer . . .
The malls around here have double sliding doors, each panel 7’ high by about 4’ wide. The 8’ wide opening they leave when they part is more than enough for most normal cars.
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