Nathan Krasnopoler was a cyclist who died after being struck by an 83-year-old driver.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WUSA) -- An emotional David versus Goliath fight is on between a Maryland family touched by tragedy and the state's Motor Vehicle Administration over how long is too long to let older drivers go without competency testing.
Twenty-year-old cyclist Nathan Krasnopoler was run over and killed in Baltimore by an 83-year old driver who hit him while he was riding in a designated bike lane. Witnesses to the March 2011 incident said the woman was apparently incoherent and failed to call 9-1-1 after the accident.
Now Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration is advocating for lawmakers to extend the period between driver's license renewals from five years to eight years in an effort to save money and streamline the process for the state's motorists.
Krasnopoler's family is outraged that conceivably under the changes, an 80 year old driver could wait until age 88 before having vision and competency tested again.
"This isn't a unique incident," complains Elliot Krasnopoler, Nathan's older brother. "There are other examples of older drivers having poor competency and not being safe on the roads."
But MVA administrator John Kuo says the agency has a highly regarded system for testing elder-driver competency that rely's on family, doctors or police to refer suspected problem motorists to the agency between renewals if necessary.
Krasnopoler's family complains the driver who killed Nathan was never referred to the MVA by police and only gave up her license after being sued by his survivors. They are asking lawmakers to oppose the license renewal extension and make competency testing for all drivers tougher.
Krasnopoler was a sophomore computer science major at Johns Hopkins University who was from Columbia, Maryland.