slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
Apologies hb. I over-reacted.
One of the tragedies of dementia is that the victim doesn't realise when his/her faculties have reached a critical level .
Senile old git!
- Thread starter hackbike 666
- Start date
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Apologies hb. I over-reacted.
One of the tragedies of dementia is that the victim doesn't realise when his/her faculties have reached a critical level .
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
It often doesn't happen though.
My father carried on driving about 2 years too long. We should have stopped him sooner, but he loved it so much....
He swore that he was still a safe driver, but his reactions were slow, his eyesight getting poor, and his neck was so stiff that he couldn't turn his head properly.
In the end, it was becoming obvious that he was going to kill himself and/or somebody else so we had to sit him down and tell him straight - his driving days were over. It was necessary, but very upsetting!
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
Same deal round here. It is very upsetting for both the victim and those who have to break the news.
hackbike 666
Guest
No problem and hopefully they have sealed the entrance from where he came from.Still strange though never heard of it before.I'd be interested to see how he did it.
In bold,yes probably something I did not appreciate the seriousness.
I knew someone a few years back and we went out for a drive one night (he was driving as I can't drive)...ended up driving up a traffic island or whatever it was and he asked me what it was...I said we hit some bit of pavement...This was when I realised he had poor night - vision.Don't know if he drives now but I hope not.I never sussed the problem till then...He was about 70.
Senile old git
Thought you were talking to yourself again then Hackers
I worry myself im forever losing things...
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Presumably he didn't travel very far so he could have retained his independence by cycling????
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
hb, no problem at all. Thanks for the posts.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
No, he didn't travel far, but cycling was out as was even walking any distance. He had severe arthritis in both hips. It used to take him 20 minutes to get from his chair to starting the car!
We tried to get him one of those electric buggy things but he wouldn't hear of it. He wouldn't even have a disabled parking zone painted in front of the house - "People will think I'm a cripple!"
It was why we were so reluctant to stop him driving - his car was his independence, but as I wrote above - we should have stopped him sooner.
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Blimey! You put his "independence" above the safety of other road users or any one who would cross his path.
Last year I saw an old guy that pretty much matches your description here. He eventually stopped his old banger of a car inches and I mean inches from the doors of the local post office. He pushed open the drivers door and then spent 20 minutes trying to shoe horn his zimmer frame out of his car then manoeuvre himself from the car using the frame shuffling very slowly into the Post Office. He could barely walk. The zimmer frame was the limit of his ability I think. Christ only knows how he was still allowed to drive. I called the police to report complain about him. Don't know if anything was done, but it was truly scary to see that such an old and infirm person was still permitted to drive a motor vehicle.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Do you know something - I hesitated to write what I did because I've seen you react that way before with other people and I didn't want to get into an argument about it with a person like you!
I don't want unsafe drivers on the roads whether I'm related to them or not. It's absolutely pathetic to suggest anything else. "Oh, it's okay if dad kills someone, but if anybody else does they should be locked up!"
I wasn't living near to my parents at the time. On my visits home, my father didn't drive me about so I didn't know how bad he had become. He had been crippled for well over 20 years and was perfectly safe driving all that time so don't start on the zimmer frame thing. If we had stopped him driving when he could no longer walk properly he'd have been housebound in his late 50s!
Eventually, when I did get a lift off him in his early 80s, I was shocked by the deterioration that had taken place since the previous time he'd driven me (a couple of years earlier, when his driving was fine). I phoned my sister as soon as I got back to my parents' house and discussed it with her. We agreed that he had to stop driving and told him the next day before he had a chance to drive again.
It was very upsetting but we did it as soon as we realised what was going on. He argued about it, but we took his keys away from him and told the authorities that his license should be revoked. His car sat in his garage unused for 2 years because he couldn't bear to sell it. He only left the house about another 3 times after we stopped him driving. Twice for treatment in hospital and once to die there.
In retrospect, there must have been a period of time when he was unsafe before we realised that he was. I admitted that in my original post.
PS I've just reread what I wrote in my other post. You could interpret it as me saying that we knew he was unsafe but chose to ignore it. That wasn't the case. We wanted to believe that he wasn't decrepit and trusted him when he said that he was still okay to drive. That was a mistake. That's all I have to say.
skudupnorth
Cycling Skoda lover
- Location
- Astley,Manchester
We get 'em here...!
He had to reverse all the way back down!
GOOD ! Hopfully scuffing bits as he went down
