Yesterday in South Bend, a 67 year-old man was attempting to park his car at a Family Dollar store when he accidentally stomped on the accelerator instead of the brake and crashed through the front of the building, hitting a woman and her two young daughters. No one was killed, but the mother is in critical condition and her five year-old daughter is in stable condition.

No charges will be filed as a result of this incident. Why? Because driving while aged, addled and basically a dangerous menace to society is not a crime. Every day the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles renews licenses for elderly people who cannot see, have horrendous reaction times, and with each passing day get more and more confused by the simple mechanics of operating a car. And the result is that people get maimed or killed.

Don't misunderstand; I'm not painting all elderly drivers with the same brush. Some 80 year-olds out there are undoubtedly better drivers than the average 20 year-old. But in the state of Indiana, no effort is made to determine who should be given a license and who shouldn't, and as a result, these tragic accidents are almost a daily occurrence around here. And certain drivers in Indiana have taken advantage of our lackadaisical attitude toward dangerous and impaired driving to the point of craven indifference.

One month ago in South Bend, 56 year-old Leroy Hoover was driving through a residential area when he struck two girls, ages 6 and 4. The four year-old was killed; the six year-old remains in critical condition with slim chance for survival and zero chance of a normal life. The driver then attempted to leave the scene of the accident until a neighbor with a handgun intercepted him, at which point Mr. Hoover allegedly defended his actions by claiming that the girls had "jumped out in front of him."

But guess what? The prosecutor, Michael Dvorak (574-235-9544) isn't pressing any charges. Apparently, it's just A-OK in St. Joseph County to run over two little girls and then drive away, provided they had "jumped out in front" of you. Or maybe we have a double-standard when it comes to vehicular homicide. You see, if Leroy Hoover would have blown a BAC of .08 he would have been hauled off to jail immediately. If they had found a half-gram of pot in his ashtray, they would have called out the Feds and raided his home. But if he gets behind the wheel of a vehicle knowing fully well that he cannot see due to advanced glaucoma and often suffers seizures, and then tries to flee after killing a little girl, THAT'S PERFECTLY OKAY! I'm sorry, but have we lost our f**king minds here? Have we no sense of right and wrong, or what constitutes culpability for one's actions in our society?

Oh, but wait... it gets better. It turns out that Mr. Hoover has a long and storied history of endangering innocent people. A TV news reporter discovered that he has been cited for:

• leaving the scene of an accident in 1986, and not having insurance,
  
• hitting a 13-year-old boy in his own yard in 1996 when Hoover lost control of his van,
  
• driving over a curb and hitting a telephone pole in 1999, once again without insurance,
  
• allegedly backing into a gas pump at a Speedway station in 2005, then leaving the scene.

And yet this guy remains a free man with full driving privileges. I wonder who he will kill next. Maybe it will be a member of MY family.

Before you respond, please think twice if you're going to feed me some garbage about "respect for the elderly" and "preserving their dignity" or some such rot. If an elderly person has no concern for the safety of others, then they have no dignity and they certainly don't have my respect. If you can't drive, then stay the hell off the road. I would rather have a highway full of drivers with a .08 BAC than one hoary old coot with a deathwish just looking for his next victim.