A 75-year-old Waukomis woman was killed Friday last week when the vintage car she was driving left a rural Garfield County road, went airborne and landed upside down in a creek bed, troopers said.
According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Jackie Scribner was headed south on Imo Road in a 1963 Ford Falcon about a quarter mile south of Southgate Road when the crash unfolded. Investigators say the car ran off the roadway, slid into a ditch, struck a tree, went airborne, hit a concrete culvert and rolled roughly half a turn before coming to rest on its roof in a low culvert area with a creek bed. Troopers who responded pronounced Scribner dead at the scene, and the patrol reported she was not wearing a seat belt, as per an OHP report cited by FOX 25.
Older Drivers And Seat Belt Risks
Health officials have long warned that older adults are especially vulnerable in serious crashes and that seat belts remain one of the simplest ways to survive one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that thousands of older adults are killed in traffic crashes each year and urges older drivers and passengers to “buckle up every time” as part of its broader safety advice for aging adults.
Classic Car, Modern-Day Dangers
Unlike newer vehicles, a 1963 Ford does not come equipped with modern crash-avoidance or occupant-protection technology such as electronic stability control or multiple airbags. That kind of gap in safety gear can make older vehicles less forgiving when a driver leaves the roadway in a single-vehicle crash.
Research highlighted by Nationwide Children's Hospital found that vehicles more than 15 years old are tied to a substantially higher risk of driver death in fatal crashes when compared with much newer models, underscoring how the age of a vehicle can affect a driver’s odds of surviving a serious wreck.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is still investigating the Garfield County crash. Troopers have not yet released information about speed, possible impairment or other contributing factors, according to FOX 25. Officials are asking anyone who may have information about the wreck to contact OHP or local authorities.
