a coworker had that up on the bulletin board next to his desk. It usually got a chuckle out of whoever saw it, and then a shake of the head over the truth behind it.

Abbey

Back in the early 80's I was driving truck for North American Van Lines - New Products Division, and we pulled 45' dry van box trailers primarily hauling carpet, furniture and new appliances from the point of manufacture to the retail stores.

One day in mid June I was delivering water beds from California to a store in a large strip mall in Lexington, Ky. There was a roadway behind the strip mall that was clearly marked on both ends "Delivery Vehicles Only, No thru traffic". I pulled down the roadway and located the back door of the store where I was to deliver and I backed my trailer in close to the door.

The store manager hired four temporary laborers and about 8am we started unloading. The guys were working exceptionally hard and by noon we had about 2/3 of the load off so I told them to take a break for lunch and I took them next door to a pizza place for lunch.

When we returned to the store about 45 minutes later there was a cop standing by the desk in the store and he asked, "Who's driving that North American truck out back?"

I said, "Its my truck, but nobody is driving it, it has been parked in the same place since 7am."

The cop says, "Don't get smart with me buddy, I can see what happened here, you been in an accident and I need your information."

I walked out back to see what he was talking about and sure enough, there was an elderly lady about 80 yrs old standing there looking a little ruffled, then I looked at the truck. The lady had driven her car completely under my trailer at a rather high speed. The entire windshield, windows and upper part of the passenger compartment was laying in a heap on the ground on the right side of the trailer, My spare tire rack had been ripped from under the trailer as well as the lower threshold of the trailer side door and the car had continued on another 30 or 40ft where it had crashed headlong into a huge concrete support for the overhead lighting in the parking area. Fortunately the lady had seen it coming and she quickly laid down across the console and passenger seat as the top of her car was ripped off.

But there she was telling the cop that I had backed the trailer over her car, to which I replied, "Thats BS, that truck has been sitting right there since 7am and I have been to lunch!!" (i could just imagine what kind of hillbilly charges they were fixing to put on me)

With that the cop looks at me and says "Let me handle this!", then he turned to the lady and says "Look lady, I came on duty at 7am and I made my first pass through here at 7:45 and that truck was sitting right there when I came through, in addition, this area is for delivery vehicles only, so you have no business even being here."

A couple minutes later the lady goes over to the cop and says, "Officer, aren't those trucks supposed to have their parking lights on when they are parked that way?"

I could just see the frustration building in the cop as he turned to her and said,"Lady, its noon on a bright sunny summer day with not a single cloud in the sky, if you can't see a 45' long, 13ft high semi trailer, I doubt seriously if you would see a parking light either, what I want you to do immediately is go over to whats left of your car and get me your drivers license, registration & proof of insurance, and don't come back until you have a much better story to tell me than what you have tried so far!!"

73 and still driving

I've said for a long time that we have a minimum age for driving, we really need to look at a maximum age. Even AARP concedes that drivers over 70 have a higher accident and death rate, and increasing tickets.

The worst drivers are teenagers and the elderly. Insurance companies where I live set rules for teens-no driving at night, no multiple riders, etc. Why not some rules for oldsters?

Hi cynic,

It's plain to see that you're full of ...

... beans!

I have over an hour of required consultation with a video presentation by a Ministry of Transport presenter along with about a dozen other 80s-and-over every 2 years.

After a break, we have a written test of driving regs and traffic sign recognition.

Some are selected by the presenter for a driving test.

Many of us seniors are aware of our diminishing capabilities and take them into consideration as we alter our driving habits along with the other changes in lifestyle.

o j