ST. GEORGE – Authorities confirmed Wednesday that an elderly man who was struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot Tuesday has died.
Fredrick Osborn, 86, died shorty after arriving at Dixie Regional Medical Center Tuesday afternoon, St. George Police Officer Lona Trombley said. Obsorn sustained serious head trauma from the incident.
Read more: Vehicle strikes pedestrian in parking lot
Osborn was in the Albertsons parking lot around 1:40 p.m. when he was hit by a silver 2002 Pontiac Grand Am driven by an 88-year-old Ivins man.
“Based upon the initial investigation, it appears that, rather than pushing the brake, the driver of the Grand Am pushed on the accelerator,” St. George Police said in a press release Wednesday. “After striking Mr. Osborn, the Grand Am continued through a parking stall and struck a shopping cart return bin before coming to a stop after striking an unoccupied vehicle.”
The incident remains under investigation by the St. George Police Department. Once the investigation concludes, the incident will be reviewed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office to determine if any charges will be filed.
“The St. George Police Department extends their deepest condolences to the family of Mr. Osborn during this terrible time. Our thoughts and hearts are with you,” the police said in the press release.
St. George News reporter Ric Wayman contributed to this story.
Ed. note: This story has been updated with additional information from the St. George Police Department.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @MoriKessler
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.
We love St George, but it seems to have some of the worst drivers in the country. Last week, a 16 year old kid drives his car into a house on Valley View and injures a sleeping man. Now an elderly man drives over and kills a pedestrian in a supermarket parking lot.
It’s past time for our elected officials to address this issue. We need to have and ENFORCE laws against 1) texting/hands-on cell phone usage while driving, and 2) elderly drivers no longer physically able to safely operate a vehicle. Mayor Pike, are you listening?
The issue of mandatory testing of the driving abilities of old timers is a touchy subject with politicians. Very aged folks around here are extremely consistent in their habit of voting straight republican EVERY SINGLE TIME, so it’s likely an issue both local and state politicians won’t even touch. It’s one of those “don’t infringe on muh liberty!” type issues to the wingnuts. It’s up there with the “obamacare death panels”. All these old senile ticking time bombs will remain on the roads–nothing will be done.
I’ll tell u, I once rode as a passenger of an 88 year old women who was well past the point she should’ve turned in her license, and that was one scary experience. Thankfully she’s since given up driving.
I agree with you Bob about this being a hot-button topic for some elderly people. I disagree that it has anything to do with Republican or Democrat. It has nothing to do with “liberty”, it has everything to do with public safety.
Anyone who thinks keeping impaired drivers on the road is a matter of “liberty” should also be advocating to repeal all DUI laws and leave it to drunken drivers to police themselves.
Elderly giving up their licenses is a problem across the country. I also know drivers in their 80’s I would rather be in a moving vehicle with then many other drivers. And no it is not about Dems Or Republicans. Comments makes anti-conservative remarks about everything. Very hateful.
Now we have the news update. MAYOR PIKE, YOU OWE THE CITIZENS OF ST GEORGE A PLAN TO ADDRESS THIS ON-GOING PROBLEM. IT’S NOT GOING AWAY ON ITS OWN. BE A LEADER AND STEP UP!!!
If Mayor Pike doesn’t issue a public statement, I hope Mori Kessler / the St George News tracks him down and asks him for one.
Also debit card machines because the elderly cannot figure out how to swipe the card, or what card to use and so you wait and wait. Also, Costco – have you tried to get around in there? The elderly are everywhere and just clog up the place. At least they are not killing each other with their carts though. The samples slow them down. And they don’t have the complex accelerator/brake issue to deal with.
Poor dear. Life has really dumped a load of stress on you. Maybe you need to take a rest for a while and maybe listen to some relaxation music. Maybe take up yoga or some other relaxation technique. Or go buy a therapy dog. Call Henry and the two of you can feed off each other’s woes.
Don’t you drive the streets? Or do you just stick your head in the ground about everything?
I’m afraid it’s not the ground where Mesaman sticks his head. The PD needs to aggressively enforce distracted driving laws instead of radar tickets for 5 mph over posted limit. see alot of petty enforcement instead of directed enforcement targeting specific accident causing violations.
I totally agree with you, 42214. Every day that we drive the St George streets, we see at least 3-4 drivers that are on their mobile device. IIRC, the local police can only cite a texter/hands-on cell phone user if they already have pulled them over for another offense.
Between the texting drivers and the enfeebled elderly drivers, it’s a matter of time before every St George citizen is going to be involved in a vehicle accident due to no fault of their own. We were in the Albertsons parking lot about 2-3 hours before this innocent man was run over.
mesaman is upset and bitter because he’s reaching an age when he’ll soon need to give up driving, as he’ll no longer be safe on the roads–he may have already crossed that line. Plus, all those years of living off the socialist teat of the gov’t have likely turned his brain to mush. what can ya do?
mesa man, the elderly are eveywhere. Time to lock them up some place so they won’t endanger the younger drivers texting and yakking on their cell phones (which is what I see more often), speeding and turning left in front of oncoming traffic, or taking drugs. If Henry and others that agree with him believe what they espouse I suggest they give up their licenses by age 62, no taking chances with them eh?
Read more closely, desertgirl. I referred to “elderly drivers no longer physically able to safely operate a vehicle”, not all elderly.
I also addressed people (not just teenagers) texting/using hand-on cell phones. The majority of texters that we see are NOT teenagers, they’re all ages.
As repulsive as this is to read after just hearing about the person who drove into the guys house as he sleeps and about kills him too, what’s even more repulsive is what will be done about it. Which is essentially nothing. Most will say we are a compassionate race and should feel sorry for him because he is “old”. We are a long ways from being a compassionate race. There isn’t one day that goes by that a person takes another’s life. I say this because this is another one of those situations that will be tossed aside because the “poor guy” make a mistake. MISTAKE? This person has been behind the wheel of a car for no less 70 years and you mistook the gas pedal for the brake? Really? You didn’t stop your car until a parked car that you hit stopped you, but not before you took the shopping cart stall out. I have to ask; how is this any different than someone driving drunk, or texting, or talking on their phone, or stoned, etc. The ONLY thing that should be looked at here is incompetent driving took the life of someone’s husband or father. The reason for the incompetence matters not. You’ve demonstrated that you are a safety hazard to other people when you are behind the wheel. You just killed someone. YES- you killed them. Your license should be taken for no less than a year. And when it’s reinstatement time, you will take the full road test. You fail, you don’t drive. But this isn’t likely because our legal system doesn’t do what needs to be done to prevent this activity from continuing to happen. You watch and see. I’ll be surprised if a ticket is issued. Even then, what will that do to keep him from driving and more importantly than that is how do we keep him from driving over someone else? Negligent use of a firearm will put you in jail and probably revoke your gun privileges permanently. This was negligent use of a deadly weapon that should yield the same results.
It’s my understanding that the driver was also very aged and likely senile. correct me if I’m wrong. And you’ve got a point, it’ll likely takes the deaths of many children before some sort of policy is instituted to deal with aged and senile drivers, if even that. See my post above.
oh, it was rob83 that mentioned the children, my bad
Seriously? This is getting scary! Sad someone died but am really glad it was an older person who got to live out their life, imagine if it had been someone younger, like a child! This is atleast the third time the accident reports gas mistaken for brake, enough is enough already, something needs to change..
Have you seen the accidents and fatalities here and across the country because of young drivers, missed the correct pedal due to being drunk, high on some drug, or texting yakking. What do suggest we do? Btw every life counts. Period.
We should teach teens to be defensive drivers and we do need to emphasize them concentrating. Older drivers are out there, swerving toward our teens, backing into them, running them off of the road, killing them. Kids have to be aware that they are targets and any day their number could come up as some bleary eyed old guy bears down on them in the parking lot.
Sounds to me like a “Grumpy Old Men” take out job scenario…justsayin’