I recently blogged a post about the awful car crash in North Carolina caused when the driver, Ernest Brinson, went into diabetic shock. Brinson survived, but his eleven-year-old son was killed. Tragically, Brinson was on his way home from a checkup visit to the doctor when the crash occurred.

Anyway, here's an update on the situation: the district attorney's office of Johnston County, NC, is expected to announce sometime this week whether or not Brinson will be charged in the crash. It's a real ethical tangle, isn't it? On the one hand, this is a terrible tragedy and, obviously, the family of the boy must be devastated. On the other hand, don't diabetics have a responsibility to be extra careful when they drive? Says a NC Highway Patrol spokeman, "A person with a medical condition is just as deadly as any impaired driver."

The local tv station reporting on this crash also quotes a Raleigh, NC, endocrinologist, Dr. Anthony Azzi, as saying diabetics should always check their blood sugar before they get behind the wheel. Seems like a good idea to me, but I wonder how many diabetics bother to do this?