[QUOTE=happs22,Jul 16 2005, 11:36 PM] I've been trying to convince my 75-year old grandfather to stop driving for a few years now.

 

No. Just, no.

I've been BACKED INTO by two people, both over the age of 75. I had my horn pinned down both times, and they neither heard nor saw me. One even argued I hit him (with my passenger side door into his rear bumper).

Also, trying to merge around slow moving traffic is a huge threat. When traffic is flowing 80 and there is someone doing 60 in the left lane, this is a giant threat. It's against the law because of such, but that law is never enforced.

I think bi-yearly driving tests would be good for anyone over 75. You're retired... it's not like you don't have time.

 

If you go to the site it is interesting to note that there is almost a perfect inverted bell curve. Guess we should ban all people 16 to 30 and 71> from driving


http://www.qualityplanning.com/news/030929...r%20drivers.htm

 

In most states you can report someone to DMV anonymously. DMV will call them in and give them a simple test. If they fail the test, they lose their license. Doctors have to report a patient who is losing it due to aging and may be a risk to the public/themselves.

I lived in a town in Texas once where the local kids were calling in the license plates of everyone over 65 or so. The local DMV called all of them in until they finally figured out it was a prank!

 

the lady across from me was told by her doctor that she shouldn't drive.... she won't stop. She backed over my mailbox about a year ago, but that didn't stop her either.

She is about 4'11" with all the shrinking... she drives a big white buick and can barely see over the steering wheel.

so, after destroying my mailbox and her doctor telling her to stop, she says... you...i will keep on annoying the world with my horrible driving. to grandma!

 

Call the DMV. It works.

 

My friends father has very bad diabetes, to the point where he had to have a leg amputated and he now wheres a very expensive prostet....prothstet.....ahhhh fake limb. Anywho.... he went to vissit his mother in the nursing home when one of the residents, a 90 year old woman, who still drives her car around town hit him in the parking lot. She was only going about 10-15 mph and he ended up on the hood. This lady keeps driving through the lot looking for a space and pulls into one and parks the car with my friends dad on the hood the whole time. Apparently this old bat did not see a full grown man on the passenger side of the hood as she is driving around. What kind of tunnel vision do you have to have to not see someone on the hood of your car?

My friend said she and her family were screaming and running after this car in the parking lot and her dad lost about a $2000 fake leg. It is a kind of horrifying story, but I could not stop laughing at it while she was telling me because the mental picture was so funny.

I hate to see her dad get hurt though because he is just a great guy even though her family teases him by calling him Peg-leg Craig. That lady had her license revoked permanently by the court after the incident.

On another note, there was a story on this subject of taking the licenses away from older drivers in our paper a few years back. The reporter was writing about an elderly couple that had been traveling around the US in an RV for several years as the old man's vision failed. The wife, like many women of that era, never learned to drive. As his vision started failing they developed a system of her "guiding" him while he drove. They are probably off the road by now as the story was several years ago but the story said he was now almost completely blind and they were still driving around the country with him in the drivers seat and the woman giving verbal directions. It sounded like BS to me, how would you be able to pull into a gas station or park the thing from verbal directions and no vision??????

Sorry for the ramble.......

 

I agree with the basic skills test annually starting say in the 75-80 range. Why that age, dunno pulled the number out of my butt, but you gotta start somewhere.


My grandfather drove very slow no danger right? Before he passed away recently he went right through the only stop sign in the small town he lived in for 85 years. Even though he was going slow he managed to t-bone some poor young womans car and cause her some minor injury. He had been through that intersection a million times in his life but somehow forgot it was there and did not see the sign.


I am all for people driving as long as they can safely but I think everybody remembers that guy that plowed through the market out in San Diego about a year or so ago and killed several people. They say he was doing about 90 and he was very old and confused when they pulled him from the car.

I realize that when you take the keys you take the freedom of these people away because they lose mobility. It is sad but some people are as dangerous behind the wheel as someone who has had a fifth of whiskey.

My father is retired and to pass the time he volunteers about 10 hours a week with a group that drives old people around to go shopping or to the doctor, or visit friends. I am sure they have these organizations in most major cities as well as door to door tranist systems for the elderly.

Testing. You pass, you can still drive. I will hate it when my time comes to give up the keys, but my friends have my permission to shoot me the first time I need to wear adult diapers so I might not make it that long.

Oops sorry, another long post, nothing to do at work today.

 

Yup! My mom turned 92 this spring and is off to the West Coast of Canada with her 97 year old friend who still drives.

He is a pretty good driver and still has his wits about him but sheesh! The guy has to get his rocker started just to get out of the chair. Like most old people he finds it easier to drive than walk any distance.

I figure, us 50 year olds have the bell curve. We have the vote! We are the baby boomers and have enough population to influence the vote if we really get organized.

I believe we could pass legislation forcing all new cars to come with a turn signal indicator that has no neutral. You just get in and it starts blinking. Left or right, it doesn't matter. Better yet how about wipers that stay on an hour after the rain has stopped?

We could also get them to make slow lanes on the expressways that let you exit or U turn any where you damn well please.

We could also have them pass laws to make everybody behind an elderly driver in the wrong. Heck everyone knows old people just go any where the damn well want without signals and wide turns like we are driving a semi trailer rig. Everybody knows old people drive like hell so make em watch out for us old farts.

Nothing like a little creative thinking, and start a flame war!

Running and ducking . . . .

 

My grandpa, who is 88 I believe, stoped driving long distances. It was only about five years ago when he use to drive me to baseball games and I didn't even think second for my safety. I know he isn't how he use to be before. It's hard for someone who is older to give up on that freedom.

I can remember when I was a kid and my great-great grandpa still drove and he was over 100. I remember one time riding the bus all of the sudden we slowed down to about 25 mph when someone yelled"hey it's Pow Pow(my greats gramps nick name)." He was all over the road. I'm surprised they let him keep his license.

Another time while I was getting a Gyro at a deli, I saw this old lady get in her big car. She stepped on the gas, but instead of putting it in reverse to get out of her parking space, she went in to drive completely jumping the curb, running over some hedges, driving over the sidewalk then on to the road. She never hit the break lights. Some kids were next to me on their bikes just staring and staring at what they saw. I guess she noticed because she looked toward them and gave them the bird. One of the kids yelled,"hey that old lady just gave us the bird," and laughed. I thought to myself how luckily no one was on the sidewalk or no car was out on the street. I'm almost positive she would have hit anything if it were in her way.

I think the law here in California is after a certain age, I think 70, you are required to take a driving test every five years. Not a paper test, but an actual test drive. I'm probably wrong, but I remember hearing that from someone.

One thing old people should realize is usually they are worth more than most. I'm pretty sure most of them have some sort of trust of will they are thinking of giving their kids or who or whatever. All it takes is hurting someone else to take that all away in a law suit. I keeping thinking about that guy who ran over all those poor people in San Monica. I know there was video of him crashing in to a barrier a few years before he took the lives of all those people. Right then and there his family should have taken the keys away.

Sam