Yet another ... OAP launch !
Author
Discussion

Newton472

Original Poster:

165 posts

66 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/22/major-...

Ban autos for >65s ? Just wait for electric and they'll end up in orbit..

john41901

713 posts

90 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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Presumably refers to oldsters confusing the accelerator for the brake with any pedestrians in the vicinity as collateral damage ? Agree they are a menace.

Perhaps there needs to be some kind of OAP mode to limit power output when maneuvering at low speeds ? EV torque would do some serious damage !

SidewaysSi

10,742 posts

258 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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Is this an Alpine thread? wink

Looks like the driver had a medical issue. Can happen to the best of us e.g. a heart attack when behind the wheel so I wouldn't be too quick to judge/comment.

HustleRussell

26,137 posts

184 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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A bit too much levity in the thread title and opening post IMO.

“One person has suffered life-changing injuries and the driver is in a critical condition after the collision”


imagineifyeswill

1,245 posts

190 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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I took a heart attack at the wheel and I was only 52, luckily I was stopped at a traffic light when it happened

DazzaSport

209 posts

90 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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Statistically, it's not OAP's you have to worry about.

I'm sure I read a few years ago, that more people crash / die in their teens / early 20's than any other age bracket.

So, let's ban them from the roads too?

Riley Blue

22,944 posts

250 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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Not older people enjoying a boat trip then?

Yes, I know it's about an unfortunate accident but he ^^^ started it!


Toltec

7,179 posts

247 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
Newton472 said:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/22/major-...

Ban autos for >65s ? Just wait for electric and they'll end up in orbit..
Better still just give your telephone number to all of the OAPs in your immediate area and let them know you are happy to be on call to drive them wherever they need to go whenever they need you to. They don't need to drive at all then so the minor inconvenience of being their free taxi service has to be worth the reduction in risk due to your massively superior driving skills. You never know they might leave you something in their will which will be most welcome after driving them around for 20 -25 years.

/sarcasm

shandyboy

473 posts

178 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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Just look at all the OAP's posting in the "show us your crash pics" thread...

Johnnytheboy

24,499 posts

210 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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Old man did just this at the garden centre I work out of; drove out of the gate just nailed it into a tree across the next T-junction.

Injured himself and killed his wife. frown

carinaman

24,470 posts

196 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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It was interesting hearing the pronunciations of that place name on BBC radio lastnight. I presume the first one I heard knew how it was pronounced. It's pronounced 'Ponty Clean'? The u takes on a y sound?

They're good looking cars for what they are those Pumas. When the BBC news person said Ford Puma I did arrive at the new one after concluding it's unlikely they were driving a little Coupe from the 90s.

FNG

4,635 posts

248 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
Toltec said:
Newton472 said:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/22/major-...

Ban autos for >65s ? Just wait for electric and they'll end up in orbit..
Better still just give your telephone number to all of the OAPs in your immediate area and let them know you are happy to be on call to drive them wherever they need to go whenever they need you to. They don't need to drive at all then so the minor inconvenience of being their free taxi service has to be worth the reduction in risk due to your massively superior driving skills. You never know they might leave you something in their will which will be most welcome after driving them around for 20 -25 years.

/sarcasm
It costs money for them to buy and run a car. I'm sure with the savings they could pay their taxi fares themselves - assuming they have the gumption to realise they're a danger to the general public and the decency and humility to actually do so.

anonymous-user

78 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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There is nothing quite as infuriating as the look of confusion on an oldsters wrinkly old face just after they've done something dangerous at the wheel. They are quite happy to lie through their teeth to maintain their record of having driven 70 years without ever having an accident or being caught speeding.

My old Mini was written off by an old git pulling out of a side junction onto an A road, he was looking in the opposite direction at the time, and exiting a pub carpark.

donkmeister

11,770 posts

124 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
DazzaSport said:
Statistically, it's not OAP's you have to worry about.

I'm sure I read a few years ago, that more people crash / die in their teens / early 20's than any other age bracket.

So, let's ban them from the roads too?
When these threads come up, I assume it's the sort of crashes that draw the interest.

When younger people crash/die it's so often due to them doing something they really shouldn't have been (drink driving, drug driving, whanging it round the lanes too fast). Whereas the OAP crashes of note happen when someone is doing something innocuous such as starting up their car when facing a plateglass window.

We can legislate against driving like a prat, but we can't legislate against becoming confused.

Most OAPs I know drive new cars and change them every few years, so more and more of the potentially confused will have crash-prevention systems to save the rest of us.

FNG

4,635 posts

248 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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True that better tech will better protect us from the terminally confused, not convinced it will eradicate the crashes.

Doesn't help with the ones who manage to go the wrong way down a dual carriageway or similar.

Or do 42mph everywhere and can't see in focus further than the end of the bonnet.

Or can't see at night when headlights come the other way, but still get in the car and drive anyway.


Lots of older people, who can still drive well at the moment, will be along to say ban youngsters because they crash more.

I think we should look at cracking every nut we reasonably can. Not just the biggest one.

donkmeister

11,770 posts

124 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
Newarch said:
There is nothing quite as infuriating as the look of confusion on an oldsters wrinkly old face just after they've done something dangerous at the wheel. They are quite happy to lie through their teeth to maintain their record of having driven 70 years without ever having an accident or being caught speeding.

My old Mini was written off by an old git pulling out of a side junction onto an A road, he was looking in the opposite direction at the time, and exiting a pub carpark.
I think some people play on it - I know my grandad once got off 50mph in a 30mph by doing the sweet old Welshman act. biggrin

I was also on the receiving end of it after having to mount a (thankfully low, and nowhere pedestrians would ever be) kerb to avoid getting spanked by a Skoda Yeti that did a tyre-screeching swoop across 3 lanes of a motorway junction roundabout at me. When I caught up with him down the road to ask how he wanted to pay for my trashed wheel, he politely said "Well I was going to go to x, but then I changed my mind and decided at the last minute to go to y". Full-on doddery old man act, despite driving like a Barry 100 yards earlier. If he'd been belligerent and told me to do one I'd have probably followed it up way more than is sensible, but instead the pretence of vulnerability made me leave it for the sake of a wheel refurb. Good strategy on his part.

Nickbrapp

5,277 posts

154 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
carinaman said:
It was interesting hearing the pronunciations of that place name on BBC radio lastnight. I presume the first one I heard knew how it was pronounced. It's pronounced 'Ponty Clean'? The u takes on a y sound?

They're good looking cars for what they are those Pumas. When the BBC news person said Ford Puma I did arrive at the new one after concluding it's unlikely they were driving a little Coupe from the 90s.
It’s pont - y - clun

So pronounced ponty- clun

I drove past the scene and I assumed someone had jumped off the railway bridge

J4CKO

45,962 posts

224 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
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Its funny how racism gets pounced on, homophobia similarly gets called out by and large, sexism to a lesser degree but discrimination on grounds of age is acceptable ?

There are plenty of older folk who drive perfectly, there are those folk that should hang up, or be forced to hang up there keys as age has made their driving standard drop but a lot of the time, people sometimes just have incidents behind the wheel and its not attributable to their age, though this one does seem to point to that.

If it is, down to infirmity then it should be called out, but a little respect and calling people "Buffers", "Giffers", "Gimmers", "Codgers" and "Coffin Dodgers" sounds rather unpleasant and unnecessary. Older people aren't a separate species and it happens to all of us, dont see the need for the derogatory terms.

There are plenty of people who are unfit to drive a lot younger than 65, there are plenty over that age who are spot on and everything in-between.


anonymous-user

78 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
donkmeister said:
Newarch said:
There is nothing quite as infuriating as the look of confusion on an oldsters wrinkly old face just after they've done something dangerous at the wheel. They are quite happy to lie through their teeth to maintain their record of having driven 70 years without ever having an accident or being caught speeding.

My old Mini was written off by an old git pulling out of a side junction onto an A road, he was looking in the opposite direction at the time, and exiting a pub carpark.
I think some people play on it - I know my grandad once got off 50mph in a 30mph by doing the sweet old Welshman act. biggrin

I was also on the receiving end of it after having to mount a (thankfully low, and nowhere pedestrians would ever be) kerb to avoid getting spanked by a Skoda Yeti that did a tyre-screeching swoop across 3 lanes of a motorway junction roundabout at me. When I caught up with him down the road to ask how he wanted to pay for my trashed wheel, he politely said "Well I was going to go to x, but then I changed my mind and decided at the last minute to go to y". Full-on doddery old man act, despite driving like a Barry 100 yards earlier. If he'd been belligerent and told me to do one I'd have probably followed it up way more than is sensible, but instead the pretence of vulnerability made me leave it for the sake of a wheel refurb. Good strategy on his part.
Don't get me wrong, young people are way worse in terms of dickless stupidity, it's just that pretending to be confused thing that really annoys me.

Pica-Pica

16,113 posts

108 months

Friday 23rd July 2021
quotequote all
Some people get joy from posting tragic events. Bizarre.
OP, your clock will never run backwards.