raise your right hand and repeat after me:
when it gets to the point where the simple act of removing my foot from the brakes causes the car to begin rolling forward too fast for me to handle it, i will give up driving.
when i begin driving in the parking lane (then having to swerve around the parked cars) because it feels safer than being out in the big scary street, i will give up driving.
when i have shrunk so much that i all that other drivers can see is a tuft of blue hair and my knuckles on the steering wheel, i will give up driving.
when i have to turn my hearing aid down so i won’t be annoyed by all the screaming and hornhonking, i will give up driving.
when half the speed limit feels terrifyingly fast to me, causing me to apply the brakes at random intervals for no reason whatsoever, i will give up driving.
ok, i realize it’s the last vestige of independence for many seniors. but it’s really not fair to the rest of us drivers, to hang onto your license well past the point you can handle keeping up with ordinary traffic.
and i’d like to dedicate this to the extremely elderly gentleman that was driving down my street this morning, v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, because there was a garbage truck in the driveway of where he wanted to turn. i waited for him because it was hard to tell what he was thinking as he crept down the street, until he came to a stop — right in front of my driveway, yet still a good hundred feet from the driveway he wanted to turn into. totally oblivious to having me blocked in. when i could get out, i had to follow him through the parking lot. he got up the driveway ok but when presented with a number of parking spaces straight ahead, he panicked and hit the brakes, then crept oh, so, slowly, into one of them.
he had no business being behind the wheel of a large automobile. none at all.
AMEN! Preach it, sistah!
I dunno what the laws are out of Pennsylvania, but here the DOT has a lot of initiatives and laws that address this specific issue. In no specific order:
1. Once you’re 45 or older, you can be randomly selected for retesting when your license comes up for renewal. If you refuse the retest, you aren’t able to renew until you comply.
2. There is a part of the PA Vehicle Code which demands that any doctor who sees any patient of legal driving age and diagnoses him/her with any condition that would make driving unsafe or impossible must report news of this condition to PennDOT in writing within fifteen days.
3. Concerned citizens or family members may make a report to the DOT about any driver they know about whose driving they have concerns, and it will launch the same investigation and testing that #2 will, often leading to medical suspensions and license revocations.
And once you lose your license here for any health condition, PennDOT makes you jump through lots and lots of medical hoops to ever get it back. Older drivers and younger drivers are the high-risk groups for causing motor vehicle accidents, especially those involving fatalities. If your state hasn’t something similar in place, I’d talk to your local legislators, or whomever writes your DOT policy there.
And that was my public-service good deed for the day! Hope I didn’t put anybody to sleep.
i know they have some of these — however, i can remember chris’s mom (who was the most terrifyingly bad driver you can imagine), being diagnosed with seizure disorders and *not* losing her license, because she was able to convince her doctor not to report something, or to call it something else, it was awhile back — anyway, a little later, we did get her to stop driving. my god, she was on dilantin! she often forgot where she was!
My wife currently works at a senior’s community centre. Prior to that, she worked for the National Institute for the Blind.
In both jobs, she has seen people behind the wheel that really shouldn’t be there, and confidentiality rules *require* that she not report them to authorities.
Sometimes, protection of civil rights can be taken a bit too far. Can you even imagine LEGALLY BLIND people driving themselves over to appointments? It’s an outrage.
legally BLIND? oh my god.
actually, that would explain a lot of the bad senior citizen driving i’ve seen — like the lady who, a few weeks back, was coming out of a driveway — she was looking *right* at me, big buick going 45 miles an hour, and she slowly inched out into the lane and proceeded to go really slow.
i had been watching her with disbelief (‘no way is she gonna pull out’), but planning an escape route, which i took — swerved on past her, blaring my horn. she never flinched. never noticed. there was no reaction of any kind on her part.
maybe she was blind and deaf too.
I hear ya, kd!!
My mom is 79, hard of hearing, and has difficulty turning her neck.
She considers driving the last bit of independence she has…
Its so sad..
So true. My 88 year old grandmother just had cataract surgery on both eyes and started immediately talking about getting her license renewed. My dad nipped that conversation in the bud. I do feel bad for the old folks because this is a source of pride — being able to drive, that is. I just steer clear of them on the road.
Then again, I don’t think driving is just a source of pride for the older members of our community. Being at the beginning of a license suspension myself, I can say that it certainly is a humbling experience.
well, source of pride, or act of desperation, it’s still not right to put others (and yourself of course) at risk. i have been a passenger in a car with a totally incompetent senior driver, and it’s all at once heartbreaking and scary as hell.
i am determined not to be like some of the moms listed above that stubbornly refuse to admit that they’re past the age they can safely drive.
Personally, I can’t wait for a good reason NOT to have to drive! I’m only 37 and it already scares the hell out of me. I’m not sure, though, if I’m more afraid of the elderly, or the young. I’ve had more close encounters with teenagers…
well, in california we have provisional licensing for under-18 drivers:
* During the first 6 months you are licensed to drive you must be accompanied by a driver 25 years of age or older if you drive between the hours of 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. or if you have passengers under the age of 20 in the car at any time.
* During the second 6 months, you must still be accompanied by a driver 25 years of age or older if you drive between the hours of 12 a.m. and 5 a.m., however, now you may have passengers under the age of 20 in the car without supervision between the hours of 5 a.m. and midnight.
this means a whole year of restricted priveleges, and violations are dealt with harshly. think that’s helped, since many accidents were caused by teenagers with carloads full of their friends, where the friends would be goofing off.
it’s hard to say what’s scarier – irresponsible kids, or impaired elderly drivers. both groups need to be supervised, and have their licenses taken away if they demonstrate an inability to operate a car within safe guidelines.
my van was repossessed over four years ago, and i do enjoy not having to worry about driving… and of course, the awful expense thereof. but damn, i sure wish i had a car. if/when i get one, i promise to take the pledge!
Provisional licensing sounds like a great idea for those just getting their license and for the elderly. Maybe for the first three? years you get your license, you would go back once a year to renew and test. And when you turn 70?, also go back annually to renew and test. Something’s gotta give, I agree.
~J
Here, here. Amen and you go girl.
I am not surprised by all the comments that you received.I use to think it was just the od people in Atlanta,…..then I moved to Asheville, NC, where most of the part-time residences are senior citizens who come to the mountains to live in the summer. You can spot them a mile away, because they all live in FL. and somehow manage to drive ALL the way to NC…but once in Asheville they cause numerous wrecks. I believe I would be safer om the roads with people driving on LSD, instead of driving in old age!Robin in TN