freeSpeech: Dr. Andrew Haas
On July 23, 2005, I was on a routine training ride, about 25 miles into a Saturday afternoon ride, when I was hit by a car. A 75-year-old man turned left and drove right into me. He managed to crack my bike in half and unfortunately, did almost the same to my body.
He received a $128 fine. My sentence was three months in a hospital, more than a half dozen operations and an experience where I was as close to dying as one could be.
The fact that he was an elderly driver was not a surprise to me because of the incredible number of elderly drivers who are involved in motor vehicle accidents.
Drivers should have continuing driver education every 10 years in order to ensure that they are up to date with the most recent changes in driver safety. Additionally, states should require road test license recertification at age 65, and every license renewal thereafter to ensure that the people who are driving the vehicles have the competence and fitness to do so safely.
Dr. Andrew Haas is an Orthopaedic Surgeon specializing in Sports Medicine. He performed his undergraduate training at Yale University prior to attending medical school in New York at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His orthopaedic training was at Montefiore Medical Center in New York which was followed by a Sports Medicine Fellowship at Boston University. While there he took care of the Boston University Intercollegiate Athletic Program, including the Top 10 ranked hockey team. He has worked as a physician at the Boston Marathon, at the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships, and at the NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Championships, and the ECAC East Women's Hockey Championships. He was also the Co-Medical Director and Tournament Orthopaedist for the Orange Classic International Soccer Championship.