[mlc9852]

Ninety-three year olds should not be driving.

[Sender]

This is an issue that we're going to see more of. Good drivers getting old. My Dad is only 80 but recently drove through a woman's garage door while turning around in her driveway. Hit the gas instead of the brake. Insists it was no big deal and he's a great driver. This was in his surviving car...the other one got totalled. Yet the DMV continues to issue him a license, and he has insurance.

[carumba]

If they take their time he won't need a trial of any of that stuff either. Just tear up his drivers license and I hope he was insured.

[doc30]

I live near St. Petersburg. I'm not defending the senile driver in this case. However, the article says the pedestrian was crossing 34 Street South. The article doesn't mention that this road is also known as US 19 and is a six lane highway and a major north-south artery that merges with the interstate before crossing the mouth og Tampa Bay. The 45 mph the driver was going was the speed limit. Any pedestrian foolish enough to try to jay walk across that road is dodging death every time.

[Celtic Conservative]

Ninety-three year olds should not be driving.

Agreed, it's just sometimes getting them to see the reason for hanging up their keys. My grandfather loved anything with four wheels and an engine. Started with his V 8 Ford, on through his Hudson terraplane...Etc. would sit and regale you for hours with all his favorite cars. But after he had a few "near misses" in his early eighties , he tearfully turned in his license. He loved to drive, but he also realized it wasn't such a good idea anymore. In our culture to stop driving is symbolic of surrendering your mobility, and hence, your freedom. I don't think it was the driving he missed, it was the ability fo him to be in control of his own life and not have to depend on others.

CC

[Coldwater Creek]

80 yo's should not be driving. I am in my middle 60's and sometimes I think that I should not be driving. If I had not have learned how to drive in Calif. and now live in the South where no one observes the rules. Most do not even have a license or insurance.

[Katya]

I don't think you can generalize, there are some 50 year olds that shouldn't be behind the wheel, and some 90 year olds that are incredibly fit and swift.

[bella1]

I live in northern Michigan where most retirees go to Florida for the fall and winter (i believe its the law). We can always tell when they return in the spring by the way they drive; creating lanes where there are none, driving through store windows, parallel parking when they should be angle parking, etc. And i have been to the Tampa area during the winter to visit the folks. Talk about taking your life in your hands! And for some reason they all drive huge cars. Between hurricanes and the elderly, I wouldn't live in Florida for nothing.

[TopQuark]

Ninety-three year olds should not be driving.

True. He should be living with his children. But, since the "Greatest Generation," we've' been abandoning our elderly to themselves and the state.