87 year old driver..

MySillyKids · Mar 15, 2007

http://www.katu.com/home/video/6505392.html?video=pop&t=a

An 87-year-old driver who was unconscious behind the wheel and who nearly ran other drivers off the road does not seem to understand the danger she posed. KATU's Anita Kissee talked to the woman Wednesday night.

How CRAZY!!

beeman · Mar 15, 2007

Up here in Saskatchewan there are special liscence plates for vetrans to honor there service to the country. They even got perks like free parking at the meters downtown. However, my sister uses them as warnings for old drivers and stays clear of them. I know it's not nice to say it, but it works.

JaRylan · Mar 15, 2007

beeman said:
Up here in Saskatchewan there are special liscence plates for vetrans to honor there service to the country. They even got perks like free parking at the meters downtown. However, my sister uses them as warnings for old drivers and stays clear of them. I know it's not nice to say it, but it works.

LOL, I agree. I hate that we don't have front plates anymore though...now you can't see them coming at you.

beeman · Mar 15, 2007

JaRylan said:
LOL, I agree. I hate that we don't have front plates anymore though...now you can't see them coming at you.

uh huh. I don't feel so bad now knowing that my familys not the only one that thinks it and just doesn't say anything.

Chameleon · Mar 15, 2007

Wow I take offense to that. I'm a 26 year old with Veteran plates. Remember a Veteran is anyone who has served time in the Armed Forces.

JaRylan · Mar 15, 2007

Chameleon said:
Wow I take offense to that. I'm a 26 year old with Veteran plates. Remember a Veteran is anyone who has served time in the Armed Forces.

My apologies Chameleon. To be honest, my first thought when I see a veteran's license plate is "thank you".

beeman · Mar 15, 2007

Sorry, I was not meaning to offend you, but a majority of the users of the vetran plates here are elderly people. Thank you for serving.

BABYGIRLLYNDSEY · Mar 16, 2007

When I was working at the bank we had a 90+ year old man that came in did his banking then left and got into his car. Apparently he had his foot stomped down on the gas, his car was parked outside my office window and was making a very loud reving noise

so I went to the window to look, he put the car in reverse and shot right out of the parking spot, down the street around the corner of our building and took out 5 cars in our employee parking lot!!!

We ran out of the building after him and he had no idea where he was. It was so sad. They did take his license away, Thankfully, and someone drove him to the bank after that.

arly1983 · Mar 16, 2007

I know it is a very controversial subject. In georgia, last week, and elderly lady got confused and ran her car in someones house. I feel personally that after a certain age, all people should be required to be retested every x number of years. It will not solve all the problems but will at least take some people who are a danger to themselves and others off the road.

Dillipop · Mar 16, 2007

I personally think that everybody should be tested every few years. It's not just the elderly that can have issues that can affect driving. If you did it straight across the ages, maybe people would be up to date on general laws and safe driving practices.

trailrunnermom · Mar 16, 2007

Sometimes it's impossible to imagine the stuff that can happen ... this past winter, a driver in Aspen, CO (in his 70's but active and alert) drove three miles the wrong way up a highway, forcing hundreds of cars and trucks to bail out of his way. Amazingly, no one was hurt or killed...just very, very angry. What happened? The driver's cancer had metastasized to his brain, and this poor man, who was fine one day, was not okay the next. (He has since passed away.)

Anyway, reading the article makes me think, sometimes *anything* can happen...will I be ready? (Hopefully, a little more ready now that I just took a Defensive Driving course.)

JaRylan · Mar 16, 2007

Dillipop said:
I personally think that everybody should be tested every few years. It's not just the elderly that can have issues that can affect driving. If you did it straight across the ages, maybe people would be up to date on general laws and safe driving practices.

That's what I've always thought would be the best idea. Bad driving can happen at any age, see the example below:

Ummm, Wednesday I turned the wrong way down a one way...on the street next to the courthouse...with the windows from the courtroom I had to go to facing that street...thank goodness there was a parking lot I could pull into immediately and the one vehicle that I was facing moved over into the other lane.

beebear23 · Mar 16, 2007

Well, I've decided that if you are so old and decrepit that you can barely walk to your car, you really should NOT be driving it. I see that all the time here...

mominabigtruck · Mar 16, 2007

I totally agree with dillipop. In ohio if you have a cdl you have to have a physical when you renew your license and any other time you company feels like. I think its great because that also is a way to keep drivers off the road that really shouldn't be there.

cpsaddict · Mar 16, 2007

This driver is in Oregon, where I happen to live. The DMV here is a joke. I friend of mine is legally blind and they renewed his drivers license for EIGHT YEARS! He does not drive, but he just wanted to see if they would renew it. he went into the DMV and they took his picture, but did not test his eyesight. WTH!?! So, even if this woman is a danger(it sounds as if she is) the state will do nothing about it. Her family or friends will have to convince her to give up her license.

It's sad, but true here. I see elderly drivers all the time. My grandma is one of them. She is not unsafe, but she is SLOW. We always joke that the blue Buick with 15 cars behind it is Grandma. She really only drives to the local store anymore. My mom and aunts take her everywhere else.

lovinwaves · Mar 16, 2007

That lady is so freakin' adorable! Too bad she didn't *quite* understand her dangerous actions

Jeanum · Mar 16, 2007

This thread reminds me of one of my great uncles who was still driving beyond his capacity to safely do so even in my then childhood opinion. When he was about 80 years old, he drove his car through the back wall of his garage when he jammed his foot on the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal as he pulled into the garage.

The whole wall sort of flapped open in front of his car and then popped back down behind the car after he drove all the way through it and stopped in the back yard, almost as though the wall was a garage door that pivoted outward instead of the supposedly solid wall it really was. His car (a 70s Chevy Malibu IIRC) had a few dents and scratches and the garage wall was pretty much in tact except at the edges.

Relatives couldn't convince him to give up driving until he went into a nursing home around age 90. Luckily the garage thing was his worst "senior driving moment." He passed away several years ago at age 101, and used to like re-telling the tale of the day he overshot the garage. His comments were more about how he had built the garage himself and how well it performed when he drove through the back wall (he was a builder/carpenter before retiring and built his own house and garage). I don't think he ever appreciated how lucky he was that nobody ever got hurt. He was one of those stubborn types who refused to wear a seatbelt, fearing he'd be "trapped in the car by the darn belt."

Suzibeck · Mar 16, 2007

I agree, that lady is just adorable! I do hope she does not end up back on the road however.

We were fortunate with my mil. About the time people from her church started telling us she shouldn't be driving, she had hip replacement surgery. We took her old, big, van and sold it for her. When she recovered, she wanted dh to help her buy a sedan. He told her, "Mom, I'll help you buy a car if you take a driving test and pass." She was really mad that some people thought she shouldn't be driving. Like many older folks, she thought she was a safe driver. She did not pass the test. It took her a couple of years to get over it, but at least a 3rd party made the final decision so her anger was not directed at us.

solmama · Mar 17, 2007

My heart breaks for the old folks who think they can drive, but cannot. My grandma was one of those people. I try to put myself in their shoes and realize that, I too, may one day be stubborn and old and desirous of my independence. I can only hope that I will not be such a person (who will drive dangerously), but who knows? Time, perception, and life experience change everything.

broken4u05 · Mar 17, 2007

My grandma has not driven in a long time. I think she is scared to but it hink it is also better off that way too. She can almost not walk anymore and sometimes is not all there too. But my grandpa is fine. God he is more there and out and going than anyone i know. I do think there should be test done every few years

87 year old driver..

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