Mother of current ISS astronaut killed

[Dr Mordrid]

Bummer.....

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5268808&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Mother of Astronaut Currently on ISS Killed

Rose Tani, the mother of NASA astronaut Dan Tani who is currently aboard the International Space Station, was killed Wednesday evening in the town of Lombard near Chicago according to a release from the Lombard Police department.

The 90 year old Tani was stopped in her vehicle behind a school bus at some railroad tracks. The school bus apparently stopped when the crossing gates came down for a westbound train.

Tani sounded her horn and started to drive around the bus toward the tracks by heading north in the southbound lane. She continued northbound, went past the “downed crossing gate” and was struck by a westbound train.

Lombard paramedics removed the woman from her vehicle and took her to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove where she was pronounced dead.

Lombard police are investigating the incident, but all signals and crossing gates appear to have been in working order.

Students in the school bus that witnessed the incident were returned to Glenbard East High School--the school Dan Tani also attended--and crisis counselors were made available to them.

Dan Tani is currently a crew member aboard Expedition expected to return to Earth in January of 2008. He along with another astronaut performed the 100th spacewalk for the ISS; the spacewalk was Tani’s fifth.

A NASA flight surgeon informed Tani of the news of his mother’s death.

[KRSESQ]

Man. That sucks.

My mom is 92 and she'd still be driving if it weren't for her balance problems.

Kevin

[Elie]

people 85 years or older should not be driving.

[ND66]

people 85 years or older should not be driving.

Yeah, I did hear it on the news radio…

Sad….


But I agree with Elie.

Maybe even after 80.... .

.

[Fat Tone]

You can't use age as a hard cut-off. There should be either re-tests or a judgement made by a competent person such as a doctor at fixed intervals from pension age, and if a medical professional has concerns before pension age (eg due to early onset dementia) or at any time they should be able to notify the relevant authority.

[Nowhere]

or 75...wait, some people should be driving at all.

Or simply tests from certain age...

[Elie]

that is fine, an annual test or one every 2 years should be done, if you fail you license will be revoked.

It must be done! Just a few weeks ago I got into an acident by a lady that was around 65 who reversed and hit me while we were in a left turn lane at an intersection.
She says her husband called her to go and buy something, she looked at her left mirror and nothing was there. I was right behind her arrrrrg!!!

[ND66]

There is a fine difference when driving in some lazy town with population under 500 and city of Chicago and surrounding suburbs. It’s way too scary for half of the population around here to drive, young or old.

Just remember the accident a long while back, when an elderly guy wanted to slam the brakes and hit the gas pedal by mistake. He admitted to that too.


.

[Brian Ellis]

Well, at 75 I'm still driving but have to have a medical + opthalmologist certificate every 3 years to show I'm OK. No certificate, no licence.

[Dr Mordrid]

Here the Secretary of State handles licenses and they do a basic eye exam when you renew, even young drivers. If you have a prescription for glasses they can, depending on its specifics, require you to drive with them on. When you get older the standards tighten, and if the testers feel an evaluation is required they can ask for a physicians note before issuing a new license. They can also pull a license if a medical condition was deemed to be a factor or if you get pulled over and the officer suspects there is a problem.

[KRSESQ]

Around here, I think if you can point out the eye test machine to the examiner, you pass.

Kevin

[cjolley]

Around here, I think if you can point out the eye test machine to the examiner, you pass.

Kevin

I have a friend who lost the lens in one eye to an accident.
He passed his CDL (commercial truck license) eye test.
They tested his good eye first and he memorized the responses.


I think annual driving tests after an age determined by accident statistics (for example 65) would be a very good idea.
Peoples abilities decline at such diverse rates that no fixed cut off age would be fair or prudent.

[Nowhere]

BTW, my personall EN interpreter felt there's something wrong with the title of the article...specifically that "killed" suggests something else than what happened and "dies in accident" or even..."killed herself" would be more appropriate...

I must have nothing to do if I just check every new topic/reply that surfaced when I was offline
And in the first one just wonder about my EN...

[MultimediaMan]

My dad is showing nearly all of the signs of the onset of Alzheimer's/Dementia. Unless there is a clinical breakthrough (Thanks, Doc for pointing that one out in Science and Military.) we have about 5-7 years of memories we can reasonably expect to share with him. After that, well...

We're about to have "the talk"... probably several of them, to make sure he recalls them all, about his driving in the future. He flat-out scares me anymore. When Grandpa wants to see the kids, we always take them to see him or have grandma come over and pick them up.

Here in Arkansas, we can file a brief with the Arkansas Department of Transportation on his cognitive and physical abilities and that's usually enough to have a doctor's hold put on his renewing his license.

It then becomes a matter of convincing a doctor he should not be driving - which in this case is a dead bang no-brainer. I know his doctor would not hesitate to put a stop to his driving.

[Umfriend]

To be in space when you mother dies..... I imagine that must be tuff.

Over here (where all is best ) we have mandatory tests after, I think, 70. And yeah, I believe there to be a huge difference between driving in Friesland or Paris, France. The latter even I avoid as much as possible (which is not hard).