Car Rental Customers Slam Cars into Homes, Injure Biker
Several accidents occurred last week involving rental cars. In one case, the rental agency was blamed for not screening its senior customers before renting, but the DMV said the company wasn’t responsible.
“Too old to drive? Her victim says yes,” read one headline from the New York Post in a story about a 90-year-old woman who sideswiped a motorcyclist in early October. While turning left in her Chevy minivan, Marion Clement severed 55-year-old Angel Colon’s leg and is now being sued by Colon. He is also suing Enterprise Rent-a-Car for negligence.
Colon’s claim is that at Clement’s age Enterprise should have gotten proof of her health or eyesight; his wife questions why RACs can’t rent to 21-year-olds but will rent to someone at 90. Colon’s suit contends that New York senior drivers should have to take a road test after the age of 75.
But Clement, a psychoanalyst, said she has a great driving record and that age doesn’t have anything to do with bad driving.
According to the article, the DMV said that Enterprise didn’t break any laws.
Then on Oct. 27 in Lexington, Ky., a home was condemned after a woman in her 70s, unnamed, started to back her rental car out of her home when it “gained speed” and slammed into her neighbor’s garage, according to NBC affiliate LEX18.com. It is unclear as to which rental agency the woman had rented from or if her neighbor plans to press charges.
On the same day, a woman in Charlotte, N.C., did the same thing but only it was her neighbor’s living room, according to CNN affiliate wsoctv.com. Natasha Matthias suffers from multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that can cause loss of coordination and fatigue, and had been in an accident over summer. She had the rental car as a replacement.
Matthias fell asleep while backing out of her driveway. Her sister says the family plans to evaluate whether she should continue to drive.
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