Elderly Driver Injures One Pedestrian in Alley Between Washington and Idaho Avenues

Six Santa Monica police units and 12 police officers responded to a report that an elderly man had hit a pedestrian in the alley between 9th Street and 10th Street, and between Washington Avenue and Idaho Avenue. The pedestrian, a younger man was injured but not seriously, police said.

Perhaps the police reacted with so much force over the report of a simple accident, because of the 2006 incident at a Farmers Market on 4th and Arizona Avenue, where an elderly man killed 10 Santa Monica residents, and injured 63. On the afternoon of July 16, 2003, George Weller, then age 86, drove his 1992 Buick LeSabre westbound down Arizona Avenue in Santa Monica, California toward the city's popular Third Street Promenade. The last few blocks of the street, before it ends at the ocean, had been closed to vehicle traffic for the biweekly farmers' market.

Some local residents the arise that Santa Monica traffic has reached a tipping point. The Expo Line train was supposed to be a magic bullet for traffic, but the City Council has approved so many projects in Santa Monica, that the density of people in downtown Santa Monica is now about as high as Manhattan, New York.

Traffic accidents are up 13% in five years nationwide, and this is due to the good economy, low price of gas, and distracted drivers with cell phones. The elderly gentleman pictured in these photos, was not using a cell phone.

Traffic fatalities in the United States increased by 9 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to 2015, according to estimates from the National Safety Council.

About 19,100 people were killed in traffic accidents from January through June, which also is an 18 percent increase from the first half of 2014. There has been an estimated 2.2 million people seriously hurt.