BOTH!

 

You think old people are annoying and slow on the highway, have you ever tried to get a cart through the soup isle of a grocery store on a weekday afternoon? Gives me an anuerism.

Bunch of toothless, clueless droolers taking an hour to choose between bean and bacon or chicken noodle. All the while their carts are perpendicular in the isle. Makes me want to enact the "Logan's Run" law. (how's that for an obscure reference?)


My favorite accounting professor said anyone over 65 should report straight to a furnace. He was about 75.

 

yea, i guess it is true that on paper/statistically young drivers are more dangerous and are involved in more accidents... but like i said, from my experience, i seem to encounter crazy elderly drivers on a daily basis, and i can't remember the last time i encountered a young driver that made me feel unsafe on the road.

it wasn't long ago that i had a brand spankin new license, and i remember doing stupid shit, driving fast, and not paying attention. i think young drivers need to pay more attention to the road and be more cautious... but when it comes down to it, at least when they ARE paying attention, their senses are still acute.

elderly drivers on the other hand tend to be forgetful, they can't see as well, they can't hear as well, their depth perception is off, for some reason they seem to handle high-stress driving situations poorly (like making a left out of a parking lot on a busy road... ) my dad is only 62... but driving with him is extremely stressful and nerve-wrecking. i've seen him sail straight through four-way stops because he didn't notice the stop sign... i've been in the car with him when he's tried to get ON the freeway using the freeway OFF ramp. he caused $1500 in damage to my gs-r because he miscalculated pulling into our driveway and hit our cable box and a bunch of shrubs. if you try to stop him, or say something to him, it's almost worst cause he gets all distraught and freaked out...

 

The most recent accident I witnessed was on December 23rd at 3:30pm.
I work just off a 4-lane road with a center turn lane.
There was a guy in a new Lincoln Town car (still had dealer plates) waiting to make a left from the center lane, lights on, turn signal on.
This elderly woman in a minivan was one car ahead of me. She sailed into the turn lane doing 35-40mph, never even slowed down, and hit the Town Car head on.
She just zoned out. She told the cops she wasn't planning to turn, but had just drifted over.
The Lincoln was destroyed. The minivan was probably totalled too.

 

I think the young new drivers are worse in terms of safety because of a lack of driving ability. They tend to often be more aggressive and think they are great drivers (watched too much F&F maybe??) but the elderly are more frustrating and would be a greater risk if it werent for most "middle-aged" people's ability (we hope) to react to adverse situaitons.

Personally, I'm more scared of the elderly simply because they are so often "unable" to keep tabs on everything going on around them. This can be attributed to slowed reaction times, failing eyesight and hearing, etc etc.

Driving under the speed limit while the rest of traffic is 5-10 over, pulling out without watching for oncoming traffic, changing lanes without signaling or looking. I could go on forever.

My grandfather kept driving even as he was slowly going blind. We finally had to force him to stop as he was driving over curbs and unable to see well enough to know what was going on nearby. I think there are a lot of elderly that are like this..In many ways it is a last shred of freedom for them before being regulated to their home and at the mercy of a family member, bus, or elderly transport.

 

I've been Involved in 4 accidents(21 y/o) and all of them have been caused by someone over the age of 30, the most recent was a 35ish women with 2 kids in her honda fit.I was on my gixxer at the time, Its mid-day, fair amount of traffic approaching an intersection on a 3 lane road doing about 50 in a 50mph zone, and I see this women come up on the intersection, makes a california stop and proceeds to make a right-turn on red...said she never saw me, I was able to get down to about 25ish cause I saw It coming....but ened up locking up the front, high-siding the bike, which caused the back of the bike to slam Into her rear window shattering glass all over her kids,Thank God I was mostly In a sliding across the pavement and had all my gear on(helmet,jacket,riding jeans,boots,gloves)I didn't get hurt very badly ,but the adrenaline flowing and Once I got up looked at my bike the first thing I did was rip off my helmet, cursing and screaming and threw my helmet at her car denting her rear panel(ended up getting citied for road rage...WTF?)... like I said she claimed she never saw me even through it was It was a sunny day and I had my high beams on(I do however have a black bike and black jacket,helmet)I stil;l have a court date next month, as her Insurance company is refusing to pay for my gear the got torn up IE...helmet is scraped along the left side, gloves got torn and the left arm on my jacket is worn down to the lining.

 

Just this morning I almost got into an accident because an old lady pulled out in front of me when I was going 50 mph. I looked and there was nobody beside me so I was able to swerve in the other lane...

 

geez... i'm glad you're OK and her kids are OK. could have been a lot worse, but i can definitely understand how frustrated you must be. hope everything works out...

 

Amen.

 

Or a recent observation i have noticed are middle aged women in Minivans full of kids driving seriously irrational. I had one mommy afew days ago who had to beat me to the 1st at a red light ,flys across 4 lanes of traffic and almost pits another driver in her haste, wow!