Words failed me....

[Mr Pig]

My grand father started driving when he was 15. Back in those days you didn't need to pas a test. He lied about his age and he and the farmer he worked for just bought licenses and taught themselves to drive!

Over 70 years of driving he drove buses, trucks, mobile cranes you name it and had his first accident aged about 80! Well his first accident that was his fault, other people hit him.

He it has later years he was a danger. He couldn't turn his head to see over his shoulder, so big roundabouts were pretty scary, and his reactions could be measured with a calendar. Every year he had to go to the doctor to be certified fit to continue driving but it was a joke. The doc had known him for years and just had a chat with him and signed the paper. In the end it was my grandfather who decided it was time to give up.

Was he as safe as he was in his younger days? No. So should he have been stopped from driving? That's a different question. How do you asses and define risk? Although my grandfather had poor reactions and reduced mobility he also had decades of wisdom and driving experience which would have made him less likely to crash than many younger, fully able drivers. BMW man who was no doubt irate at being held up behind him might've been cursing this 'old fart' who shouldn't be on the road but that doesn't mean that he is less of a hazard himself.

No one is totally safe. We all have weak areas or attitude issues that make us more likely to stuff up. To remove 'all' risk from the roads you would need to remove 'all' drivers. Should we remove you from the roads to make them safer?

 

[Crankarm]

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/gosport/Driver-82-failed-sight-test.4960582.jp

A coffin dodger of 82 drives into the back of a cyclist wearing hi-viz and doesn't realise until pedestrians manage to attract his attention .

Sounds like you had a lucky escape Bigtwin.

Was it only his sight that was faulty? He was probably deaf as well .

Makes me really annoyed seeing the wrinklies steaming along the pavement in town on their mobility chariots. I'm sure most of them can't see or hear properly or are just bone idle. Didn't one of these stray onto a motorway recently ?

I saw a wrinklie pull up outside the local Post Office, which I was exiting, half the car over double yellows and the rest firmly on the pavement. He pushed open the aging chevette driver's door into a passing ped. Then took his walking frame and stick from the passenger side and rear seat spending 10 minutes trying to swing his legs out the car so he could grab onto the frame and shuffle ever so slowly to the post office door 10 feet away . Meanwhile fellow wrinklies were engaging him in conversion and patting him on the back for still being independent!!!

 

[parnes]

Holy crap, that's a scary story crankarm.

How in the name of left-handed Greek buggery can you not notice a cyclist ahead, not notice hitting him, and not notice the fact his body smashed your windscreen!!???!?!?

 

[Fnaar]

Well, hopefully we'll all stay around long enough to become wrinklies ourselves... hopefully we'll have the sense to recognise when we are NO longer up to driving...

 

[wafflycat]

Well, hopefully we'll all stay around long enough to become wrinklies ourselves... hopefully we'll have the sense to recognise when we are longer up to driving...

Aye. I hope I have the good grace to recognise that point when it arrives!

 

[wafflycat]

Speaking of wrinklies... the advantage of being a cyclist...

In a neighbouring village there's a weekly coffee morning. It's run by folk in the village as a meeting point/social event for the elderly of the village. It's a great village - good community spirit, helping each other, looking out for each other. There's folk in the village where this is one of the few chances they get to socialise and it is rightly very popular. The event, although started for the local elderly is open to all and all are made welcome. Over the years it has become a meeting point for local cyclists - and those who attend are made very welcome. As it's during the week, most of the cyclists attending are also elderly. Without fail the elderly cyclists are all fit and healthy mentally & physically in ways that defy their chronological age. Almost without fail, the elderly attending who are not cyclists are much more frail, again, mentally & physically. It's a great advert for cycling!

 

[Crankarm]

Well, hopefully we'll all stay around long enough to become wrinklies ourselves... hopefully we'll have the sense to recognise when we are NO longer up to driving...

Ahem......surely you mean cycling. Many who have cycled regularly throughout their life continue to do so well into their 90s as they are much fitter and healthier than their corresponding inactive non-cycling petrol head wrinklies. The problem in the UK is reaching old age if one is a regular cyclist as so many of us are knocked down .

 

[Crankarm]

Holy crap, that's a scary story crankarm.

How in the name of left-handed Greek buggery can you not notice a cyclist ahead, not notice hitting him, and not notice the fact his body smashed your windscreen!!???!?!?

Well this 82 year old chap did. Apparently he slipped out in the car whilst his son was on holiday. The judge was woeful, the elderly driver did not incur a seperate penalty for his defective sight which he failed at the scene .

 

[tyred]

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/gosport/Driver-82-failed-sight-test.4960582.jp

A coffin dodger of 82 drives into the back of a cyclist wearing hi-viz and doesn't realise until pedestrians manage to attract his attention .

Many people have been knocked over by drivers with perfect eyesight.

Makes me really annoyed seeing the wrinklies steaming along the pavement in town on their mobility chariots. I'm sure most of them can't see or hear properly or are just bone idle. Didn't one of these stray onto a motorway recently ?

I saw a wrinklie pull up outside the local Post Office, which I was exiting, half the car over double yellows and the rest firmly on the pavement. He pushed open the aging chevette driver's door into a passing ped. Then took his walking frame and stick from the passenger side and rear seat spending 10 minutes trying to swing his legs out the car so he could grab onto the frame and shuffle ever so slowly to the post office door 10 feet away . Meanwhile fellow wrinklies were engaging him in conversion and patting him on the back for still being independent!!!

One day you'll find yourself in a similar position of being old and infirm. When that time comes, do you want young people to show the same lack of understanding and respect to you as you are showing now to old people?

 

[mangaman]

Many people have been knocked over by drivers with perfect eyesight.



One day you'll find yourself in a similar position of being old and infirm. When that time comes, do you want young people to show the same lack of understanding and respect to you as you are showing now to old people?

I agree

The link to the car knocking down the cyclist was a shocker of course

The rest of the post, I feel, is just slagging off old people. Would you call him a coffin dodger to his face?
What do you call coloured people / homosexuals?

What would you rather the old man did - stay at home and rely on the social services to collect his pension, or maintain enough independence to get to the post office (even though it was obviously a monumental struggle for him by the sounds of things) and mildly inconvenience you.

I live in a town full of old people and never feel in mortal danger of platoons of mobility scooters roaring around. There are far more yoofs on bikes on pavements even in a sleepy town on the South Coast

Sorry to go on but it's my job to keep old people as independent as possible so I feel strongly about it

 

[Sittingduck]

Would you call him a coffin dodger to his face?
What do you call coloured people / homosexuals?

If you're going to go down the path that your rant takes you. I would suggest taking a look at your own terminology first.

Just my thoughts.

 

[parnes]

Um, "coloured" people?

 

[Mr Pig]

Would you call him a coffin dodger to his face?
What do you call coloured people / homosexuals?

Get a life! It's just a joke.

 

[Crankarm]

People are coloured because looking through a transparent skin at a load of organs covered in fat, pumping blood, food and waste around the body would be pretty gross .

 

[wafflycat]

Sorry to go on but it's my job to keep old people as independent as possible so I feel strongly about it

It's good to help people be as independent as possible, whatever their age. This, however, does not make it right to allow people who are no longer fit to drive on the road out of empathy for their other personal circumstances. A driving licence is not a right, it's a privilege.