"Holy shit. Did that just happen?" Why, yes it did.I was on my way to a friend's Ridgewood suite with my mind focused on napping on the couch. I had just crossed the street to the admissions building and started speaking to a friend when I heard screeching tires and turned around.

The car had hit two people; the driver had almost hit a third person, but he had managed to swerve to my side of the road. My first instinct was to run toward the people that were hit. The car swerved-then it seemed stationary, parallel to the crosswalk-and then took off again as if the gas was hit, pedal to the floor.

I remember sliding on the snow as I moved my attention to the car. How exactly I thought I was going to stop the car, I don't know. It just happened to be what I was doing. The car flew over a small snow embankment. I really thought a small tree, maybe five inches in diameter, would stop the car-but it didn't.

At this point, the car was driving on some snow next to peripheral road.
The student who had evaded the car managed miraculously to pull open the driver's door and yell, "Stop!" His brave actions seemed to jolt something in the driver and the man took his foot off the gas. The car was still moving but this gave me the opportunity to jump in the passenger seat and pull the hand brake to bring the car to a complete halt.

The old man's eyes had a glazed look in them. He was hunched over the steering wheel. Once the car was perfectly still, he turned to me and said, "I'm sorry." I remember feeling not particularly sympathetic. After all, he could just as easily have turned his steering wheel a few degrees and hit me. "It's OK," I forced myself to say. He asked if he had hit anyone. We told him to just relax, but he knew that he had. He began to cry.

Most people immediately blamed the old man's age for what happened-but the solution is more complicated than the incompetence of old age. Elderly people are burdened with poor sight, slow reactions and a seemingly limited perception of their surroundings-but then again, if that's the criteria for not being permitted to drive, then a lot of people I know should not be driving.

Most people around me didn't react to what happened; some appeared completely oblivious. What they experienced was very different, but I wonder how they would have reacted in the old man's situation. How long would it have taken them to come out of shock and stop hitting the gas?
When thinking about my own driving experiences, I remember once hitting the gas instead of the break-but my reaction time is quick, and nothing happened. On the other hand, I may have great reflexes and better than 20/20 vision in both eyes, but I've fallen asleep while riding a motorcycle. That's worse than falling asleep in a car; riding a motorcycle requires balance.

What's the answer? I think elderly drivers should be checked on at least once a year as their abilities deteriorate. But mainly, I think that it should perhaps be more difficult for anyone to obtain a driver's license. The wrong thing to do here is to blame someone's age. This is the same type of discrimination young adults face, and therefore we should not resort to doing the same. If we go to extremes and pick out every little flaw someone has, then nobody should be driving. Most drivers would have their license revoked for bad eyesight or inadequate reaction time, while the others, like me, would have their licenses revoked for irresponsible conduct. Just because the probability exists that you'll make a mistake at some point in your life doesn't mean anybody should have the right to infringe upon your liberty to drive. Almost everyone has done something stupid in a car; if you haven't, you've either not been driving for long enough or you're probably a liar.

It's only when I think about it now that I feel bad for the old man. Youth has an entire lifetime to forgive itself for the mistakes it made; old age doesn't.

In the end, no one seemed injured beyond some scraped knees, so we walked out of earshot and I added my very own discrimination: "When old people drive it's the trees that suffer," I said. Age inequity happens; but keep in mind that you face it too, just on the other end of the spectrum. I'm the model example of learning to overcome discrimination-I thought a freshman was driving.