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Old drivers create chaos on the roads

You climb into your car with a long journey ahead and you get quite far into it as the roads are being good to you.  After a while you turn into a 60 mph single carriage way and you catch up with a car doing 40 to 50 mph.  You are stuck there for 10 miles or more and you notice whilst ripping your hair out that there's a white fluffy curled head piece just behind the steering wheel of the car in front and you.  Your worst fears have been confirmed, it's a pensioner who has no concept of time anymore.  They don't care about anyone else and they don't even know you are behind them no matter how close or far you are from them.  What do you do now?

Old drivers, should the elderly have to re-take the driving test?

I have been in this situation in the past.  I have flashed my lights, blasted the horn and edged out a little to show myself to the side mirror etc.  All of these attempts to get the attention of this person have little or no effect.  The only other option is to wait a very long time for a clear stretch of road then put the foot down escape this hell.  Of course there is the danger of a dip in the road and nearly a head on smash.  How often does this happen I wonder?  My guess is more frequent than we are led to believe.  Having experienced this too frequently, I now pull over somewhere, let the coffin dodger chug along at 40-50 in 2nd gear and light up to calm myself down before setting off again.

Also what about stupid lane swapping every few minutes?  Okay, I suppose the sales reps do that as well!  Some more examples of crazy antics from old people would be driving the wrong way down motorways (how often do you hear about that), knocking over neighbours fence because they are in 1st not reverse, taking ages to exit a junction because they are not seated high enough to see properly out the windows.

Recently I was re-fuelling my car at a garage after a 12 hour shift.  I very tired and basically just wanted to get back home.  Along came an old lady, she missed her brake pedal and rammed her car into the back of mine causing me to spill petrol all down my leg and on the floor.  She then got out and BLAMED ME for not parking far enough forward!  My response was something along the lines of "If they made the pipes longer I would have parked on the road so you could have the whole forecourt to play dodgems in!"

Personally, I think all drivers over the age of 60 should to re-take a test at least every five years, perhaps at a subsidized rate.  My grandad who is 80 is not fit to drive a car both medically and mentally.  He still insists on driving so we are in contact with DVLA in the hope that they will revoke his licence. I think that is what caring family members should do.  If a pensioner can drive the wrong way down a motorway or drive into the back of a parked car in a petrol forecourt, they could just as easily plough over a child, someones daughter or son.  Hopefully this wont happen to anyone you know, but given the choice, I'm sure you would prefer that the family of that old person intervened before someone was seriously hurt.

By: Mark H

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Well, the very elderly may not be an asset on the road-though everyone's different and I'm all for testing the over 75's periodically. However, I would have thought that far more accidents happen through the driving of the under 75s-given that there will soon be more old than young that's a worry. Think it through - testing anyone over 60....the retirement age is being raised to 67 years, if you're old enough to work you'd need to be fit enough to drive too!! Illogical; also given that we're all meant to be so much fitter and healthier etc later on in life. So start when facilities start to wan, which is more in the over 75's. AND look how appalling drivers are who are newly qualified-better testing overall maybe. Think it through-sounds like the ban the cheque idea; great for the bank they'd save money. Great for the government, they could make money out of testing!!

+2

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Fumer - 5-Nov-11 11:31 

well I think this problem would be resolved if every old person in the world was just ironed, then they would be young again, no more accidents! yay!

+2

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Shizzle Stick - 13-Aug-11 16:59 

It's easy to know if any particular group of the population are causing lots of accidents by their insurance premiums. I haven't heard of any old people being priced off the road because of sky high insurance premiums. Lets see could it perhaps be young males that cause more accidents than anyone?

+4

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Fred E - 10-Jun-11 17:43 

old people suck my hairy cancerous lump lol :D they can't drive though

-3

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cancer patient - 10-Jun-11 12:08 

It's not old drivers, slow drivers or whatever that cause chaos on the roads, it's the drivers that are affected by these things and are mentally unable to deal with it. If you're the type that gets all angry and flashes your lights and blasts on the horn, do you shout at people who get in your way in the shops or at slow waiters in restaurants. For goodness sake, get some stress pills. I bet your family must dread you getting home from work.

-1

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Alf Red - 7-May-11 13:46 

Mark H it seems to me that it is you that is the dangerous animal on thje road, if you need to get somewhere quick then start out earlier, if you cant, then it is you who should get off the road.

-10

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Peter W - 5-May-11 16:56 

DSG is absolutely right - "Accidents kill! Mistakes kill! Bad roads kill! Drink and drugs kill!" especially in a vehicle at high speed. Those same things probably wouldn't kill at low speed.

+6

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Alf Red - 7-Feb-11 23:11 

Nice suggestion Beryl, thanx for that. Unfortunately though, I live and work in different counties, not sure there would such a service available for me to get to and from work every day.

Speed does kill - ask any road traffic cop.

-2

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Nikki - 30-Jan-11 21:24 

To be fair to Nikki its good that someone her age in life is still working, Nikki dear if you have problems driving at night why dont you give the care in the community mini bus a ring?

+2

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Beryl Nostril - 30-Jan-11 15:21 

Oooh,Nikki,your capitals have shocked me into accepting your warped view of road safety{!}
Nice try,but speed doesn't KILL!
Accidents kill! Mistakes kill! Bad roads kill! Drink and drugs kill!

-3

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DSG - 29-Jan-11 23:34 

DSG: you had better inform the police then!! All of the things you mention would not be nearly so bad IF PEOPLE WERE NOT SPEEDING. If you are ****** out of your mind, God forbid, and you drive a car and run into someone at 30 mph, you still have an 80% chance of that person surviving - the fact that you are ******, drugged up to the eyeballs, whatever, has absolutely nothing to do with it. It is SPEED that is the danger.

I am not a good night driver. I suffer from night blindness, I am blinded by the headlights of oncoming cars and cars behind me. So I SLOW DOWN to compensate. I would be a complete T**t to do otherwise. If I am tired on the way back from work, I slow down. If I have a headache, I slow down.

Understand?

+8

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Nikki - 26-Jan-11 21:32 

Digsy : How childish of you. I really don't think a high postings count is anything to be proud of, quality is more important than quantity. Many of the postings allocated to my count were not in fact made by me, as evidenced by poor grammar and spelling and lack of coherent or intelligent thought.

-11

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MikeP - 26-Jan-11 20:57 

What on earth happened to GL"s comment tally? it can only be that he overtook mikep and to protect mikep"s leviathan ego admin deleted a few hundred of GL"s comments. Unbelievable!!!!

-5

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Digsy - 26-Jan-11 20:08 

Just got back to civilisation from deepest Bradistan. drove all the way in the fast lane just giving a polite flash to those idiots in my way, I had no troubles from wagons in the middle lane or middle lane hogs, German car drivers, or police for that matter. The journey normaly takes me 1hr 20mins, I knocked a full 10mins of my time, & only used a fivers worth more fuel.
To sum up before you say it "What a plonker"

-9

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Boblet - 26-Jan-11 19:58 

Wrong again, Nikki. Where the hell have you been and what the hell have you been doing all these years, that you haven't yet realised the truth about something most of us do every day? Even the government have now stopped using the slogan ?Speed kills!? because they know it doesn't.  Accidents kill. Mistakes kill. Bad roads kill. Drink and drugs kill. Almost all drivers know very well how fast they can safely travel in a given situation. Surveys in Canada have revealed that drivers travelling 10kph below the speed limit are twice as likely to be involved in an accident as those travelling 10kph over. Official police figures show that far more accidents are caused by driver inattention than by excessive speed, and one of the most obvious causes of driver inattention must be the need to watch your speedometer instead of the road ahead, because some plonker has put a yellow box on a pole.

-5

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DSG - 26-Jan-11 18:58 

Has anybody read that the predicted fuel price per gallon for this summer could top £8. If so many drivers will be forced to drive with a great deal more care to save money. We all have to face the fact that oil prices will not come back down again and slowing down will make our cars more fuel efficient.This in turn, I hope, will bring back some form of sanity that seems to have been lost in the past years( road rage, bad manners). Come-on everyone, lets stop fighting amongst ourselves when behind the wheel and show how good we really are.

-7

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Jethro - 24-Jan-11 10:14 

Oh, not you again Congo!!,you would back anyone that allowed the speed limit to be ignored.

-8

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Guess who - 23-Jan-11 14:41 

One may suggest that grumpyoldwoman could hardly do worse than some of the awful little men (or women) of all political persuasions who have held the position.

One remembers, in particular, the wholly vile Barbara Castle who could not even drive.

+12

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Congo - 23-Jan-11 13:44 

grumpyoldwomen, After reading most of the posts,you should be the transport minister, seeing as you have an answer for everything!!

+4

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Guess who? - 23-Jan-11 10:24 

Alf, I do seriously doubt that the lower limit will slow down the idiots in the long term. In my experience it makes no difference. The main road where I live had it's limit reduced from 60mph to 40mph a few years ago, I still hear bikes roaring past at a silly speed in the middle of the night; just as many as before.

The new 30mph limit you speak of sounds as though it should have been imposed before.

+5

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grumpyoldwoman - 23-Jan-11 09:33 

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