I don't mean to pick on old people, but this is nuts!!!!

[napi21]

At 10 p.m. on Oct. 19, Ralph Parker, 93, in his Chevrolet Malibu, eased up to a tollbooth on Interstate 275 in St. Petersburg, Fla., inattentive to the fact that there was a dead body lodged in his windshield (the result of a collision about three miles away). According to police, Parker was off by about 10 miles when asked where he was and by two months on the date, and he thought the body had just fallen from the sky. Parker's son, 66, said he was aware his father had been deteriorating mentally, yet Parker's driver's license was renewed last year through his age 99, based on Florida's lax renewal policy (toughened for the state's 54,000 age-80-and-up drivers only by a vision test). (By contrast, for example, Florida requires 16 hours' training every two years for its licensed cosmetologists.)

http://www.msnbc.com/comics/nw.asp?vts=111420051416

I'm 62, but even I support additional driver testing after a certain age!!!

[marbuc]

1. This will go on my "you shouldn't be driving if..." list. nt

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[napi21]

9. I guess it's a political thing, but I really wish some candidate, or

maybe an already elected official would get some legislation to re-test anyone over 70 each year! I don't mean just a vision test, but a road test too!

I wonder what the insurance data shows the riak older drivers really are?

[Bouncy Ball]

3. Wait. He passed the state's VISION test recently,

but he thought the dead body lodged in his windshield dropped from the sky?

[Jawja]

8. Well, it probably did

if he hit the person full speed ahead....

[OldLeftieLawyer]

11. Or, he just thought it was his guardian angel,

going for a ride with him.

Or maybe he thought it was just a body on the windshield ............

[NoPasaran]

12. It was just a vision test

Not a logic test.

[Bouncy Ball]

14. I'm wondering about the direction he saw it come from,

but the first person on this subthread helped me. It might HAVE really seemed as if the body came from straight above if he hit the poor guy hard enough.

:-(

[NoPasaran]

24. Yeah, but whenever a body falls from the sky

And crashes through MY windshield, I pull over and try to figure out WTF is going on.

[Bouncy Ball]

27. Real laughing out loud here.

Me, too.

[Grateful for Hope]

31. LOL!!

:rofl:

[napi21]

17. OH GOD! Not a logic test!!!!

Do you realize if drivers had to take a logic test, half or more drivers would lose their license!!!! I don't mean only old people either!!!

[NoPasaran]

20. Yeah, that would sure suck

:sarcasm:

[indepat]

4. My 93-year-old father still drives: it is scary for he surely could not

pass a drivers' test.

[Bouncy Ball]

5. When my grandfather was 80 and blind in his left eye and

deaf in his right ear (no sense of depth perception and limited hearing) and he had three accidents in a month, he voluntarily handed over his DL and his keys to his oldest daughter and said "but now you'll have to drive me to Burger King!"

He ate there every day. LOL.

[mtnester]

6. Terribly sad for both families, we had to take my hubby's grandma's car

away after she got lost in the neighborhood she grew up in and the cops had to call my in laws to come get her. She hid very well just how bad she became in a VERY short time frame. Once we took the car, she went much quicker, and was in a nursing home with diagnosed Alzheimer's within 2 weeks. She lingered for years, not knowing who she was.

Stem cell research cannot come fast enough for us in the Alzheimer's category...ANY good research for that matter. My hubby had both his maternal and paternal grandmother diagnosed with it. I am glad I knew both of those fine, elegant ladies before they lost who they were.

BTW, hubby does NOT want to get the gene test...he says as long as there is no cure, he really does not want to know in advance (not to mention he does not trust what would be done with the info after he took the test)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

15. Hubby's right

What's the good, if nothing can help? I'm with him.

My Perfect Mom's 86 and still drives, and she's one of the best drivers around. But, she's rare, I know, and there are times when I follow her - she doesn't know I'm there - just to make sure she's doing all right. She agrees that she'll give it up in a minute if she isn't top-flight.

We've talked about it - living in a metropolitan area is a plus here - and she's perfectly fine with taking cabs everywhere or just letting us drive her, but we're also fortunate that her financial situation makes all of this possible.

It's rough, when they lose their wheels. I'm so sorry for what you and hubby have endured.

[mtnester]

22. Thanks...I am with my hubby on the gene test

no way of knowing how the results would be used, or whom would "access" them.

My grandpa will be 85 on his next birthday and is sharp as a tack. No Alzheimer's history in our family at all. Now, if you want to talk shady characters, I can give you that, but they were all free will types :)

I agree with how hard it was to take wheels...we KNEW she was probably clinging to the "freedom" or normalcy her wheels represented to her at that time. We also knew it would be downhill fast once we took the car away.

[catmother]

7. my mom is 82. she stopped driving 2 1/2 years ago and i'm

glad she had the good sense to do so. she lives in a retirement community and many of the people still drive. she won't even get into a car with one of them.

[damntexdem]

10. In Texas, he would have been able to carve another notch ...

on the side of his car. ;)

Actually, toughening driving policies for the very old is not 'picking on them' -- it offers a measure of protection for them. The demented driver, the driver with sensory deficits, the driver with extremely-slow reaction times, all are primarily threats to themselves, then to others in their paths.

[Akoto]

13. I live in an area of Florida with many seniors, and ...

I can't begin to tell you how terrifying the roads are down here. Now, I have every respect for the elders among us, but there must come a point where one acknowledges (for his own safety, if not that of others) the physical limitations of age.

I generally see elderly drivers either going WAY too slow - to a ridiculous degree - or much too fast. In the case of the latter, an irritable attitude often comes with that speed, which leads them to make reckless decisions on the road. Many of them appear barely able to see over the steering wheel, and usually wear glasses no doubt thick enough to deflect bullets. This is not safe.

[Egalitariat]

28. You mean the area south of Georgia?***

nm

[Akoto]

30. LOL. Well, what I mean to say is ...

An area of my city surrounded by no fewer than four elderly folks' communities. :)

[kcass1954]

16. They've been battling this here for years.

We see this stuff locally several times a year (south Florida). I think that the state legislature would probably consider doing something about it except that there are just so many elderly people here who have no business driving but who still vote.

[napi21]

23. I figured that was the problem! Gotta keep that damn vote! n/t

[ThomWV]

18. The First Time You Fart A Bubble Someone Wants To Yank Your License

Just kidding of course but I really don't think you can set an age at which retesting, or retraining, or in the worst case just an upper age limit (why not, there's a lower age limit?) is the answer.

Just to keep it all fair howabout manditory retesting for everyone once every 3 years? Might as well decide now because a national drivers license (National ID) is just around the corner anyway.

[kweerwolf]

19. My folks are both in their 80s and continue to drive.

They do fine in their small town of 2,000 people, but it scares the crap out of me when they say they are coming to the city for a doctor's appointment. Usually my step-sister or I have to take time out to drive down, load them into their big beast of a van, and drive them to their appointment.

Neither one of them should be driving, but they insist on staying in their small town. I wouldn't mind them driving just around there (since I think most people recognize their van and stay out of their way). But outside their little town, the idea of them driving gives me the chills.

Sheesh! It's a tough job raising parents these days.

[jane_pippin]

21. That's a sad story. My grampa had a stroke while driving a few years ago.

Luckily nobody else got hurt but he ended up in a coma and died about a week later.
Testing is probably a good idea. I'm not sure my grampa would have failed it, (he was pretty with it), but they might be helpful anyway.

[Cleita]

32. Sometimes things like that can't be helped. Even young

people can have heart attacks and strokes while driving.

I hope in the future we will have safe cars. I have envisioned a magnetic road that moves cars towards their destination. The passenger just programs in a destination and sits back and has a cup of coffee and reads a periodical. The car is moved along the roads and freeways with other cars and the distance, speed and crossing intersections is done by the program, maybe from satellites. I dunno yet. This is very Jetson's isn't it? I really hope we can do this in the future. This way accidents might be a thing of the past.

[Branjor]

33. I'm so sorry about your grandpa....

A few years back when I was still working as an EMT, an elderly man had a stroke at the wheel of his car and killed a woman and her dog. Everybody felt just awful. I knew something was wrong the minute I walked into the squadhouse and there was none of the usual happy banter, just silence. I didn't work the accident, the shift before me did and my shift spent most of the morning cleaning blood out of their rig :( :cry:

[dsc]

25. My 93 year old grandmother got renewed by mail for 6 years

it is totally insane. She thankfully isn't driving anymore but it still appalls me that they just hand those things out.

[sendero]

26. The "concerned citizens" of our country..

... have been successful in getting drunk drivers off the roads and penalties for those who continue but nobody is willing to tackle this problem.

As far as I'm concerned, once you hit 65 or so you should have to pass an actual behind-the-wheel driving test every YEAR to renew your license.

I see people all the time who are as impaired as a drunk because their vision, reflexes and judgement are compromised.

[Cleita]

29. So do I and I'm sixty-five.

My husband voluntarily gave up driving a year before he died. He was seventy seven then. He said he couldn't feel the foot pedals anymore. I intend to give up driving too, when the time comes. Fortunately, my area has transportation available for the elderly and handicapped.

For people who are suffering from the onset of dementia and Alzheimers, this might not be so easy, as they may not be aware of their problems. I do think the states should demand a physical and mental evaluation from an elderly person's physician every year to renew the license and an actual driving test at the DMV every four years.

[mark11727]

34. Old Steve Wright joke...

"When I go, I want to die in my sleep, like my grandfather...

...not screaming, like the passengers in his car."