Victim's family wants driver off the road
There are relatively few fatal crashes involving drivers age 70 and older, but they draw lots of attention in Florida.
By ALEX LEARY
Published August 20, 2005
PINELLAS PARK - Fire trucks and police cars clogged the doctor's office parking lot, a mess Karl Musgrave immediately decided to avoid.
But as Musgrave made the U-turn, he saw his mother's Buick. She also had an appointment Thursday morning. "I figured I'd say hi to her," he said.
Musgrave walked across the parking lot and into a horrific scene: A woman lay on the ground, crushed.
It was his mother, 74-year-old Dorothy Spann.
"I don't remember too much after that," Musgrave said Friday. "I kind of went blank."
Pinellas Park police say Spann was hit by a car that jumped a curb and pinned her against a wall of the business complex at 4561 Mainlands Blvd. She died at Bayfront Medical Center.
The driver, Phillis Corrow, 76, was ticketed for careless driving. She told police she mistook the accelerator pedal for the brake.
"She's really upset over this," said her neighbor, Edna Shumate, adding that her friend had ducked away to cope in private.
So traumatic was the experience that Corrow told a friend she is considering giving up her license. "I don't think she'll ever drive again," Shumate said.
Musgrave thinks that's a good idea. "We're not looking for money or anything," the Pinellas Park resident said. "We're only looking that she not drive anymore."
A state law requires people age 80 and up to undergo a vision test before they can renew their drivers' licenses.
State records show drivers 15 to 19 are involved in crashes more often than any other age group, and they have the highest rate of fatalities.
Accidents involving drivers 70 or above, by contrast, are much more rare. But they attract a lot of attention - especially in Florida, where the population is older than most states. In 2003, there were 1.9-million drivers 70 or older; 401 were involved in fatal crashes.
Corrow had only one previous accident in Florida, in 1995, when she was cited for making an improper turn, according to motor vehicle records.
But "if she isn't coordinated enough to hit the brake instead the gas pedal, there's a problem," Musgrave said.
Still, he said, it's hard to link age with bad driving - he's seen plenty of younger people driving erratically on U.S. 19. As he deals with the troubling circumstances of the accident, Musgrave is planning his mother's funeral.
She was born in Ohio, he said, and was formerly married to a dairy farmer. She moved to Florida in 1963, living in Pinellas Park, Pasco County and Tampa. She worked in the deli at Publix in Pasco and Hillsborough county.
Mrs. Spann, who had two other sons, was an accomplished crafter who led a quilt club at St. Giles Manor in Pinellas Park. "She's a great loss," Musgrave said.
Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.