[user104658]

I agree that the elderly need to be reassessed regularly to see if they are still fit to drive. I believe there is something in place, but I think it needs to be more regular, I think specifically reaction times need to be assessed and there should be a threshold for that.

That said - without more information on exactly what happened, it's hard to pass judgement here. There's a high school just off the high street here, and at lunch time / end of school time there are a lot of teens around, crossing the street to the co-op which is on the other side... and it has to be said, it's bloody scary at times. Teens - sometimes alone but sometimes in larger groups of 5 to 10 - are constantly running out into the road without looking, or running out in front of the car even when they have seen it without really any consideration for how close it is or how fast it's going. We live here, so we know to take it slow around that street at those times but we've had a couple of "hit the brakes" situations going at 15 to 20mph where, if we had been going at 30 (the limit for the area), the car may well not have stopped in time.

Basically it could be the fault of the elderly driver, it could be that the girls ran out in a group without looking properly, or most likely some combination of the two (e.g. maybe they did run out without paying attention but a more alert driver could still have avoided the incident).