RIVERSIDE (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Riverside Police Department would like to see driving privileges revoked for a senior citizen who has had a series of accidents recently and won't give up driving.
Police Chief Tom Weitzel said the 84-year old woman has been involved in four different accidents over the last four months. The last two were Thursday, when she is alleged to have hit a parked car on Ridgewood Road, a street that leads to Brookfield Zoo, and then crashed inside the zoo on a sidewalk hitting a pole and a Holiday Magic display.
The other two accidents were at Harlem and Ogden and at a park in which she drove off the street and hit a small concrete barrier.
Chief Weitzel says his officers have asked her to stop driving.
"She loves driving, she says,” said Weitzel, who is withholding the woman’s name.
Most of the crashes have taken place at night, he said.
The Riverside Police Department has requested that the Illinois Secretary of State's Office move to have the woman re-tested for her fitness to hold a driver's license.
He also said attempts have been made to get a relative who lives out-of-state to try to convince her not to drive.
The woman lives alone, the chief said.
Riverside police have also asked a local organization, Aging Care Connections, to do well-being checks on her to determine whether she still holds the ability to live safely on her own.