no... not necessarily. My wife got her licence at 32, when she needed it for work.
but at any rate, it appears that the lady who went into the canal did so as she was talking on her cell phone to her friend:
Link:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...=1139267414390
Story:
Mom on cell as SUV skidded
Keswick woman, son drown in canal near Bradford
Mother had just warned her to stay off phone, drive slowly
Feb. 7, 2006. 05:27 AM
JIM WILKES
STAFF REPORTER
Police say Cassandra Read was talking to a friend on her cellphone when her car slid out of control on an icy road and into a canal near Bradford.
The 32-year-old Keswick woman and her 4-year-old son drowned before rescuers could find her submerged SUV Saturday night.
South Simcoe police initially said Read had called a 911 emergency operator for help after her Toyota 4Runner went into the canal about 7 p.m. and disappeared beneath the murky waters.
"She was talking to her friend on a cellphone when she lost control," Traffic Sgt. Steve Wilson said yesterday. He said the friend, Crystal Pittman of Bradford, alerted police and told them where to look along Canal Rd., just east of Highway 400.
"It will be crucial to talk to the friend she was talking to on the cellphone to find out exactly what was said," he explained.
Pittman refused to speak with reporters yesterday about the tragedy.
"It's just too much torture for her," said Pittman's husband Earl.
Wilson refused to speculate on whether using the phone contributed to the accident, but said cellphones "are distraction, no doubt about it."
He said Read's car was not equipped for hands-free cellphone use.
Less than an hour before the accident, Read's mother had urged her not to use the phone as she drove home from a day trip to a flea market near Kitchener.
"She phoned me when she got out of Orangeville on Highway 9 and she said the roads were bad," Brenda Read told the Toronto Star.
"I said to her, `Just put your truck in four-wheel drive and keep your foot off the gas and get off the cellphone so you can concentrate on driving'."
Police have given the same advice to motorists for years.
"They're a distraction," Wilson said. "Every week we investigate collisions or we see drivers out on the road that are crossing the centre line, they're not paying attention, being distracted.
"If you're going to use a cellphone and it doesn't have hands-free, pull over and talk on the side of the road. Keep both hands on the steering wheel, adjust your driving according to the weather conditions."
He said the tragic accident was among dozens across the area over the weekend.
"It's just people driving too fast for the road conditions," he said. "The speed limit on a road may be 80, but 50 kilometres may be too fast, depending on how icy the road is.
"People take unnecessary risks and they don't have to."
Wilson said conditions along winding Canal Rd. Saturday night were icy and slushy.
"It is a dark road," he said. "You're going from pavement to open water in less than a metre.
"There's no forgiveness on that roadway. If you lose control on that road, you're in the water."
There have been 19 deaths in the canals in the past 52 years.
Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor Frank Jonkman said town officials have been trying for more than a decade to get approval and funding from senior government levels to shift the canals and create a land buffer between them and the road.
Art Janse, the town's drainage superintendent, said it would cost $4.5 million to install guardrails along the road, but said peat fill that the road is built on isn't stable enough to hold railings in place.
Jonkman said yesterday it's finally time to cut through years of bureaucratic red tape and begin the $18 million, five-year project to shift the canal and dike system, which keeps water from flooding the fertile Holland Marsh farmlands.
"We've had a number of fatalities on the canals over the years and to people in the community it's nothing new," Jonkman said. "They've heard it all before."
He said he hopes senior government levels will listen now that the canal has claimed two more lives.
So does Read's father.
"Maybe it can stir something up to get the road fixed like the mayor wants," he said.
"But all that comes from something like this is sadness and sorrow. It's a real heartache."
Wilson said a counselling team from York Region police will meet with officers and firefighters who pulled Read and her son Taylor Grasby from the submerged car and tried unsuccessfully to revive them.
They are to be buried Thursday.
"It was very difficult for a lot of our officers, because they have small children," Wilson said. "They can relate."