Posted on 08/29/2012 5:27:09 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Texting? He was changing the wax cylinder on his gramophone!
I didn’t read the article, but i’m sure it wasn’t his fault.
his accelerator stuck...
Heh Heh, I knew that joke would show up, eventually.
“Many seniors are this arrogant.”
You bet I am!!!!!
Sounds like when I tried to tell my mother who likes her alcoholic beverages alot not to drive anymore. I hid the keys. She threatened to call the police and disinherit me. It was ugly, but my siblings and I laugh about it now cause that’s all we can do. She doesn’t drive anymore though.
South LA elementary school? How come the car wasn’t shot up before it hit the building?
Just let her ponder losing everything in a lawsuit that she gets into from an accident. In which she would by force lose her license. Lots of older folks don’t want to lose anything. Losing EVERYTHING is a huge deal, especially when it’s totally avoidable/preventable.
How bout you don’t feel safe in the car with her when she’s driving? The “If you really are concerned about people, and family, you’ll stop drving”.
Yeah it’s a difficult discussion but think about it, if you guys believe she’s a danger and you don’t do anything about it you guys might become lawsuit targets yourselves if she plows into people. Why didn’t you even try to stop her? You knew she couldn’t drive safely anymore.
I think you might also mean how did the car still have tires on it before it hit the building?
Seriously I think we can all sympathize and agree there is really nothing to be happy about, giving up driving. Of course in our society nobody is happy about that. Cars are extensions of ourselves and they are about personal freedom. Nobody wants to give up the freedom a vehicle gives you.
Keeping your house and your life savings because you’re not sued into the poor house from an accident you cause, and not having to live with guilt from injuring/killing other people unnecessarily, now THAT is stuff to feel good about. It’s really about changing the perspective.
Lose a little freedom, or lose it all. Broke and homeless, or can’t drive anymore, and possibly killed someone. What’s worse?
I think I saw you in the South Park episode on this topic. You were the one driving up the stairs asking where Costello Avenue was.
Several years ago, a 102 year old gentleman had just succeeded in renewing his driver's license for another six years when he crashed into a beauty salon in Sun City Center. When law enforcement arrived, the elderly man pleaded with and begged them to keep his driver's license, because he needed to drive his 82 year old son, who no longer was able to drive.
O.M.G.
Absolutely agree. I think it is hard on seniors because the “parents become the child and the children become the parents”. By that, I mean the children now are making a decision for their parents. They are also driving them to the doctor appointments, grocery store, errands, etc.. It is bittersweet for the younger adults.. taking away the license from the person who taught THEM to drive. But, it has to be done when the time comes for it. I look back now and thank my lucky stars that we did it when we did. I remember asking him, “How would you feel if you accidentally ran over a child?”
I personally think he gave up driving to please us or shut me up. Either way worked for me.
Of course it’s possible the time won’t come for some, too, until something obviously stops them from doing just about everything. I have a 92 year old neighbor who’s fit and great mental clarity and he drives and is just fine. He’s not logging hours a day driving but he can get himself to the store and any appointments locally he has to go to. He doesn’t do long haul driving. He has kids locally and they take him with if they’re doing that kind of travel.
Age is truly a number... it has to do with reaction (IMHO) and the type of driving. If someone lives in a rural setting... the risk of someone pulling out in front of them is less. Our case was different.. lots of traffic, aggressive drivers that don’t use blinkers, rush hour etc... That is why I have always thought that some older drivers drive slowly.... perhaps they drove a lot during a time of less congestion and they are trying to be careful. Reaction time lessens as we all age (or so I am told). The type of driving where we are simply takes a lot of reaction time.
Yes reaction time increases and injuries and chronic problems add to it.
It does depend. My 92 year old neighbor is fine driving, and i think he himself is aware of whatever limits he has, like I never see him driving at night. My father in law who’s 75, he’s had to stop driving.
I remember a few years ago I saw a ‘silver alert ahead’ sign in NJ. As in an older person driving slower than the flow of traffic ahead. Of course traffic was already going 15 mph over the speed limit (not a fan of that either), so if they only drive 15 mph under the limit that’s a 30mph difference. Don’t know what the solution is, seniors have a really high turn-out when it comes to voting.
Freegards
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