Oap drivers feel sorry or ban ?
Discussion
Driving home from work last night , old granny in metro in front of my car. Now she is driviing in the out side lane of road about 30-40 mph no indication going. I know the road well and realize that she intends to pull into a slip road in order to turn right. No problem so far. She turns right but into the lane of oncoming traffic rather than keeping left of the bollards. Result very near miss after oncoming car if forced to take serious evasive action. She drives on completely unaware of what just happened. Now, after the event her total ignorance made me laugh (as it did to the chap behind in my rear view mirror). I just cant be cross with such people, because i just think about my poor old grandad driving around in his chocalate brown A reg fiat strada at 30 mph with no real idea whats going on around him.
So do we make allowance and think of our grand parents or ban them as most of them are clearly a liability ?
So do we make allowance and think of our grand parents or ban them as most of them are clearly a liability ?
There was a similar thread about this recently which came to an altogether different opinion, there are a lot of older drivers who would put a lot of us to shame, so I think the best thing would be mandatory regular testing, this would ensure that only those safe to be on the road are allowed to be.
Definitely ban them, hey you and the driver behind wouldn't have been laughing gently if you'd ended up pulling bodies out of the car that almost hit her.
My biggest fear driving is the unforseen head on, the killer, where you come around a corner face to face with a car in your carriageway or someone turns across your path at the last second on a wet day.....etc etc.
And I'm sorry to say that the antics of some older drivers who can barely see to walk yet alone drive a 1/2 ton of steel seem to me to be making the roads more and more dangerous.
Still as we're told it's speed that kills not lethally bad driving. Drive as badly as you like, cause as many accidents as you like it's fine so long as you were doing below the speed limit.
My biggest fear driving is the unforseen head on, the killer, where you come around a corner face to face with a car in your carriageway or someone turns across your path at the last second on a wet day.....etc etc.
And I'm sorry to say that the antics of some older drivers who can barely see to walk yet alone drive a 1/2 ton of steel seem to me to be making the roads more and more dangerous.
Still as we're told it's speed that kills not lethally bad driving. Drive as badly as you like, cause as many accidents as you like it's fine so long as you were doing below the speed limit.
There's 2 distinct camps - and the way I see it, they are no different than anyone else ...
There's those (like the above) who are clueless to whats happening around them, or consequences for any of their [thoughtless] actions ....
Then there are those who are more aware than most other folks on the road. For example, my father in law - 75, and more aware than most I know, and then there's my IAM observer - retired and one of the best drivers I've ever ridden with.
K
There's those (like the above) who are clueless to whats happening around them, or consequences for any of their [thoughtless] actions ....
Then there are those who are more aware than most other folks on the road. For example, my father in law - 75, and more aware than most I know, and then there's my IAM observer - retired and one of the best drivers I've ever ridden with.
K
cotty said:
burn the lot of them
[Monty Python]
VILLAGER #1: We have found an Old Driver, might we burn her?
CROWD: Burn her! Burn her!
BEDEVERE: How do you know she is an old driver?
VILLAGER #2: She looks like it.
BEDEVERE: Bring her forward.
old person: I'm not an Old person, im not!
BEDEVERE: But you look like one.
Old person: They dressed me up like this.
CROWD: No, we didn't -- no.
Old person: And this isn't my nose, it's a false one.
BEDEVERE: Well?
VILLAGER #1: Well, we did do the nose.
BEDEVERE: The nose?
VILLAGER #1: And the hat -- but she is old!
CROWD: Burn her! Burn her!
BEDEVERE: Did you dress her up like this?
CROWD: No, no... no ... yes. Yes, a bit, a bit.
VILLAGER #1: She has got a wart.
BEDEVERE: What makes you think she is too old to drive?
VILLAGER #3: Well, she did run over a newt.
BEDEVERE: A newt?
VILLAGER #3: It got better.
VILLAGER #2: Burn her anyway!
CROWD: Burn! Burn her!
BEDEVERE: Quiet, quiet. Quiet! There are ways of telling whether
she is a bad driver.
CROWD: Are there? What are they? Do they hurt?
BEDEVERE: Tell me, what do you do with bad drivers?
VILLAGER #2: Burn them!
CROWD: Burn, burn them up!
BEDEVERE: And what do you burn apart from old drivers?
VILLAGER #1: More old drivers!
VILLAGER #2: Tyres!
BEDEVERE: So, why do old drivers burn?
[pause]
VILLAGER #3: B--... 'cause they're made of rubber...?
BEDEVERE: Good!
CROWD: Oh yeah, yeah...
BEDEVERE: So, how do we tell whether she, is made, of rubber?
VILLAGER #1: Build a road out of her.
BEDEVERE: Aah, but can you not also build roads out of stone?
VILLAGER #2: Oh, yeah.
BEDEVERE: Does rubber sink in water?
VILLAGER #1: No, no.
VILLAGER #2: It floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!
CROWD: The pond!
BEDEVERE: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Very small rocks!
VILLAGER #1: Cider!
VILLAGER #2: Great gravy!
VILLAGER #1: Cherries!
VILLAGER #2: Mud!
VILLAGER #3: Churches -- churches!
VILLAGER #2: Lead -- lead!
ARTHUR: A duck.
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEVERE: Exactly! So, logically...,
VILLAGER #1: If... she.. weighs the same as a duck, she's made of
Rubber.
BEDEVERE: And therefore--?
VILLAGER #1: An old driver!!
Coincidence? The Jeremy Vine debate on R2 today was about this very subject. On the program he talked of an opticians concern, as the optician had tested some old people's eyes and found them to be completely duff.
Then, to the optician's surprise, OAP with duff sight drove out of the car park. OH dear!
Then, to the optician's surprise, OAP with duff sight drove out of the car park. OH dear!
r988 said:
Careful now, we'll all be old someday and complaining about those 'dem speeding kids'
Just because one day we might loose touch with reality is no reason not to legislate against ourselves!
I'm with Lois. Anybody whos not upto standard should have their licence removed and then re-issued when they pass a test.
It should be a requirement to sit a driving test every 5 years, no matter what age you are.
What scares me is I live in a God's waiting room type place, and there are doddery old people who use two walking sticks, and have to lean on their cars when they are putting the key in the door, then they stagger/fall into the car, and drive off !!
There are plenty round here who cause me to swerve/brake hard, they drive on completely oblivious, no doubt telling themselves they haven't crashed in 20 years, must be because they obey speed limits...
What scares me is I live in a God's waiting room type place, and there are doddery old people who use two walking sticks, and have to lean on their cars when they are putting the key in the door, then they stagger/fall into the car, and drive off !!
There are plenty round here who cause me to swerve/brake hard, they drive on completely oblivious, no doubt telling themselves they haven't crashed in 20 years, must be because they obey speed limits...
There are a great number of other more pressing road safety issues. Until we have addressed them I think we should leave the minor problem of elderly drivers incompetance alone. For example speed cameras humps and police chases kill far more people than the elderly, until we have banned them then we should ignore them.
In addition, irresponsible parents allowing children to run about the streets, and distract them while driving with BOB stickers and child seats kill far more people than the elderly driver does so until this has been addressed leave them alone
The incompetence of road planners that leads to badly designed over complex junctions with inapropriate speed limits leads to far more deaths than elderly drivers cause so, again until these idiots have been sacked and their pensions forfeit leave the old uns alone.
Finally, apart from safety on the road there are perhaps more pressing issues that could have greater effect on saving human life such is scrapping huge cancer busses and trains, banning large diesel engines in vehicles, getting rid of entirely useless civil service jobs such as "way to 5 co-ordinators" and scrapping silliness like "Ring and ride" and congestion charges. We would then have a large army of people who could be put to work cleaning the Hospitals so we can get rid of all the filthy diseases that lurk in them.
All of these measures would improve the lot of the human race and when we have done all that, perhaps we might have time to take a new look at the driving standards issue. I suspect however that if we stop building ever more complex junctions and stop adding confusion with crap like cycle lanes it would be of negligable benefit.
In addition, irresponsible parents allowing children to run about the streets, and distract them while driving with BOB stickers and child seats kill far more people than the elderly driver does so until this has been addressed leave them alone
The incompetence of road planners that leads to badly designed over complex junctions with inapropriate speed limits leads to far more deaths than elderly drivers cause so, again until these idiots have been sacked and their pensions forfeit leave the old uns alone.
Finally, apart from safety on the road there are perhaps more pressing issues that could have greater effect on saving human life such is scrapping huge cancer busses and trains, banning large diesel engines in vehicles, getting rid of entirely useless civil service jobs such as "way to 5 co-ordinators" and scrapping silliness like "Ring and ride" and congestion charges. We would then have a large army of people who could be put to work cleaning the Hospitals so we can get rid of all the filthy diseases that lurk in them.
All of these measures would improve the lot of the human race and when we have done all that, perhaps we might have time to take a new look at the driving standards issue. I suspect however that if we stop building ever more complex junctions and stop adding confusion with crap like cycle lanes it would be of negligable benefit.
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