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Park that thing before you run somebody over!!

hillbillygirl posted on Oct 16, 2007 | views: 281 | Tags: driving, elderly
While I was out on my lunch today I was reminded of the fact that I truly believe that old people should not drive!!
 
There are way to many people out there with DL driving around that are going to end up killing someone or themselves.
 
I am pulling into the grocery store parking lot and there is this line of cars waiting to pull in as well. I realize that we are all waiting on this old man to deceide what it is exactly he is doing. He is so short that he can barley see over the steering wheel.  When I finally get into the lot most of the cars in front of me had either turned down a different isle than this man was trying to get into or had gone on around him. As I am approaching this isle that I am going to drive past.....he deceides this isn't where he wants tob e after all and with out looking back or even to the side of him he starts to back out of the parking space he is pulling into and out of the isle completly and he's headed for my lane!!! BACKWARDS!!
I hurried up and drove past .....then when I turn in where I am parking I realize he is still there trying to deceid if he wants to continue to back up or go straight to a different parking spot. "PARK THAT THING GRANDPA BEFORE YOU RUN SOMEBODY OVER!!" I hear someone shout.
 
My mother is not quite this bad....but with each passing year she gets closer and closer. She is 61. But to be honest I don't really remember her ever being a really good driver. She always did kinda scare me...lol. But seriously she is awful. We have turn lanes in this town that run down the middle of the street. She refuses to use these. She can be driving down the left hand lane and deceide to turn right, and she'll just turn with out looking behind her or anything. I refuse to ride in the car with her. I am always tellin here she needs to stop and think about the fact that she has my children...her grandbabies....in the car. She never drives the speed limit , its either 10 miles under or 20 over for her!!!
 
So here is my opinion....I think that after the age 65 you should have to every 5 years go for a new drivers test. And I'm not talking about just a eye exam here I mean a DRIVERS TEST. You have to get in the car with a instructor and show them you can still properly operate a car.  What do you think???


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Comments

  • quietone said on Oct 16, 2007....
    ha, hillbillygirl, I can relate, but you know what, before you know it you will be the old one behind the wheel of that vehicle!  I have also seen some young ones doing some "daring" moves too...like speeding past me running a red light..only for me to catch up to them at the next one.  I do agree though, at some age we all should have to take a driver exam again.
  • uniquely-ironic said on Oct 16, 2007....
    I think every 5 years is too long.  Every 2-3 years would be better.  I know it's a hassle for the older people, but a lot can happen healthwise in 2-3 years.  I also think that doctor's need to report strokes or catastrophic illness to the DMV or health board so that people suffering those have to prove they have recovered sufficiently to continue driving.  Doctors in CA already have to report anyone who has seizures.
  • hillbillygirl said on Oct 16, 2007....
    Quiet~ Yeah time goes by pretty fast .....so before I know it I will be there.  I think I'll be one of those little old ladies on a Rascal....lol
     
    UI~ Yeah I'd agree on the 2 or 3 year thing....I started to say that...but I figured atleast every 5. I think the doctors having to report is a excellent idea.
  • Eilan said on Oct 16, 2007....
    The very old and the very young are statistically the most likely to be involved in crashes.  For different reasons, however.

    Frankly, I think all drivers would do well to be retested every few years.  Seems like some people forget their driver's ed training once they get that license.
  • uniquely-ironic said on Oct 16, 2007....
    True enough!  I don't know how they do it everywhere, but in CA young drivers have certain restrictions until they're 18.  For instance, my son cannot drive with other minors (other than his sister) until he's 18.  I think it's wise (even if frustrating) for us to gradually introduce distractions to new drivers.
  • Eilan said on Oct 16, 2007....
    Ohio has a similar law, u-i.  There's a limit to the number of non-family-member passengers that a teen driver can transport.  I think there might also be a curfew of sorts, but I'm not 100% certain about that.

    When my husband was working, he used to refer elderly drivers to get retested.  One of our local attorneys, an elderly woman, threw a fit because one of my husband's troopers referred her for driver's testing.  I can't imagine why--after all, she'd hit a parked vehicle, left the scene, and took out a couple of mailboxes before the Patrol caught up to her.  The nerve of that cop!

    Unless an elderly person is referred, however, I don't know that Ohio does anything beyond the vision screen that's done during a license renewal.  That might have changed since my husband retired.
  • hillbillygirl said on Oct 16, 2007....
    UI~ I know they have a law similar to that here in KY as well. You have to have had your licence I think its 6 months....maybe longer before you can have other passengers in the car. I think this is a excellent law.
     
    Funny story....when I was 16 and had just got my drivers licence the day before....I was taking my best friend home the next morning after we had been out the night before "crusing". We where in my mothers car. She was trying to be sarcastic and ask me if I wanted to listen to this tape she was holding up. I looked away from the road as I was coming around the corner.....at the end of my block no less.....and continued to just keep on turning the wheel and ran straight into a telephone pole and totaled the car.
     
    So yeah I think young drivers are very dangerous also!!
     
    Eilan~ When I looked this up earlier it said only 3 states had any type of law at all that involved doing driving test on the elderly. I think that is crazy..... I really do think it needs to be done everywhere. And your probably right about everyone needing to be tested.....I know quite a few people who could use a reality check like that.
     
  • trythison said on Oct 17, 2007....
    LOL I have to agree with everyone.  I get so agervated when I ee older people driving realy slow and then when I go to pass them they make a fist and shake it at me as to say" young wiper snappers like you are going to kill us all one of these days"  I mean I ll be the first to admit that I do catch myself speeding but I am always going with the trafic.  And as fas as teens driveing OMG they just think nothing can hurt them and the bad thing is half the recks they cause they walk away from its the other poor people that end up hurt or worse.  I dont spend much time with my mother, (dont judge me!!! If you knew her you would understand why)  any way when I do go somewhere with her I always drive because she just has a hard time doing 2 thhings at once like driveing and trying to decide where she is going to go first.  The woman is crazy and my nerves cant take it.
  • hillbillygirl said on Oct 17, 2007....
    Trythison~ Yeah it kills me how these elderly people drive 10 or 15 mph under the speed limit and then get pissy when you go around them. Well I am sorry grandpa but I have someplace to be I am not out for some sunday drive.
     
    I had a old man get really mad at me one day when we were sitting at a green light. This man is sitting in the middle of the intersection and is waiting I assumed on the cars to pass so he could turn. Well all the cars had passed and he's just sitting there ....so I gave my horn a little toot. Well this pissed him off obviously....he flips me off then procedes to drive about 10 mph in front of me. I can see him in his rearview mirror shouting at me. I found all of this amusing which obviously made him even angrier then and began slamming on his breaks. By this point I had about 20 cars behind me. He was behaving like some kind of kid having a temper tantrum. So he pulls over on some side street and I guess he thought he was gonna be a smart ass and get in behind me and tailgate me or something. Well he had to sit there for quite a while while the other 20 something cars passed. I got a good laugh outta that.
  • Eilan said on Oct 17, 2007....
    My father-in-law is 87 and he tends to let my mother-in-law, who's 76, do most of the driving now. A few years ago, he slowed down as he was approaching a yellow light (but wait! you're supposed to speed up and go through them, right?) and the young man in the car behind him got pissed because he had to stop. He got out of his car, walked up to my FIL's truck (his window was down), and said, "You fuckin' old man!"

    My FIL punched him in the face. The young guy skulked back to his car, embarrassed at being hit by a geezer.


    My husband's late aunt used to drive no faster than 35 mph on the interstate (speed limit 65) near her house. She believed that she couldn't get a citation for going too slowly. Her assumption was incorrect. Driving too slowly can be as dangerous as excessive speed; that's why a lot of cities have posted minimum speed limits.
  • hillbillygirl said on Oct 17, 2007....
    Eilan~Good for your FIL...that guy had it coming!!!
  • hotaka said on Oct 31, 2007....
    I think it would be good for all of us to have such a test. Sure I have seen elderly people doing totally stupid things. It's like they are the only one's in the world and don't notice all the other people they are holding up or inconveniencing. But I have seen plenty of people between the ages of 20 and 60 who should seriously retake their tests because anything they might have learned when they first got their license has clearly been forgotten. I think we all very easily get into bad habits and I think retaking our tests would help us remember that driving a car is not playing with a toy. It's a heavy piece of plastic and metal that we can send charging down the road at over 80 kilometres per hour simply by pushing a pedal down. Given that many people don't look enough or think enough while driving, having to take those tests every five years might teach them to think more and more safely.
  • crybabylu said on Nov 08, 2007....
    i agree with hotaka.

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