More About Incompetent Elderly Drivers

jemdandy

14 years ago

It was said by a young wag:

"I hope to die quickly and peacefully like my grand dad, and not like his passengers who were yelling and screaming."

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Comments (6)

abbey_cny
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
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
lazypup
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
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!!"
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The biggest age-related change I've noticed in my parents and grandparents is related to sweets. My dad (72) now stocks the house with cookies and such but he never ate any kind of cake or cookie before. My grandmother (90) will eat nothing but candy, cakes and cinnamon buns if left to her own. I think for her it's the taste but also the decadence of it that delights her. On the flip side, my mother (70) had a crazy sweet tooth all my life. If i was late for curfew, I knew to bring home a peanut butter tandykake, chocolate bar or a donut to soften the blow! Now she doesn't eat many sweets at all.. and she's taken a liking to margaritas much like your mother took to root beer! (lol) I have noticed many other changes in my father but he had a series of pretty catastrophic strokes 15 years ago. He's regained his speech to the point that you wouldn't know that he'd had a stroke if you met him on the street. He still odd pockets of memory loss and he confuses pronouns (mostly he/him for she/her). The biggest change is just in how he processes information. Again, while age may have compounded some of that in the recent past, it's primarily related to the strokes.
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...it is important to make sure you have an advocate (guardian) who can help out in the event you are temporarily incapacitated." Not quite. A guardian is what the state sets up when you have NOT taken care of your business. Power of Attorney (POA) is what you should set up yourself to AVOID ever becoming subject to a guardianship. And if you cannot afford an attorney, at least download the papers from your state, sign them and get them notarized. 99 times out of 100 that will work fine. (unless your kids are into fighting over who gets to be POA) I work in this area, and trust me: everybody involved is always happy to come upon signed Powers and drop the court mess. There may come a day when you canot speak for yourself, even temporarily. And no, your spouse or your parents can't simply start making decisions for you. (Remember Terri Shaivo?) Take care of your business and the courts will leave you alone. Neglect making a plan and designating Powers, and you may leave the court no choice but to step in. Often a terrible mess, but that's the law.
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"All those posters, who are complaining about older drivers, are you willing to volunteer to drive a senior, to the grocery store, or their doctors' visits?" Cold as it sounds, it is not the responsibility of people who are complaining about unsafe drivers to drive the people they're complaining about, around. It would be nice, and it would be charitable, but it is not their responsibility, nor are they obligated to accept having unsafe drivers on the roads if they don't want to drive others around. However, there does need to be some problem solving going on so that these older people can get to appointments and get errands done. But it is NOT acceptable for an unsafe driver to be on the road because they need to go somewhere. My daughter had to face that reality when her license was taken away due to a diagnosis of epilepsy, and the same goes for any other unsafe driver, including older ones. From my observations, police are quicker to ticket young drivers who are speeding slightly, than they are to ticket older drivers who's driving habits are unsafe. Many older drivers here drive slowly enough to obstruct traffic and pull out right in front of oncoming cars only to drive below the speed limit. They are never ticketed until they cause an accident. The younger drivers are quicker to be ticketed. Actually, a few years ago a senior citizen put her car in reverse and bashed into my car at an intersection, and then she yelled at me for not getting out of her way! She also refused to give me her license info, and a police officer had to get "verbal" with her to get her to provide it.
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rosemaryt, you have a tough situation and my heart goes out to you. Best wishes in a successful resolution to the problem. This is a very frustrating thread to read. People screaming for you to go commit a felony makes me just shake my head in disbelief. Laws vary from state to state so when you get "armchair lawyers", including myself, giving you advice, take it for ideas only since your situation will vary. A few things do come to mind though. First, the police are sympathetic and in fact, that's good for the public as a whole but doesn't help for this situation. Now you need a "hot dog" cop, but the problem is to find one. There are other options though, again however it varies in different jurisdictions. One is a "citizen complaint", "criminal complaint" or citizen's arrest. You need guidance to do this properly and if appropriate but seems to me that it could in this case. I'd doubt very highly you'd get him committed for evaluation with the adverse positions of the doctor and social worker. However if he is truly senile, and it's documented, then a guardianship is a definite possibility. But an involuntary guardianship is not easy, and rightly so. But you might be able to propose a temporary guardianship, a conservatorship or something to get a start. This won't be quick most likely, but is an option to consider. In MN, starting a guardianship proceeding would be more likely to get an eval ordered. Again, your state will vary. I hope you're paying no attention to the fools who suggest that you will be financially responsible for his actions. Good grief where do people get these ideas? That's stupid, plain and simple. C'mon folks, she needs help, support and ideas, not ridiculous ramblings. I suppose someone will running offended and I'll get a friendly reminder but so be it. It needed to be said. Likewise that you'll force a cop to do something, that you can sue the cops if something happens down the road and well, it's a highly emotional situation and obviously many people aren't thinking clearly. People watch too much "Boston Legal" or something and want to threaten to sue for anything thinking that people will cringe and fold. It may work with someone who doesn't know better, but threatening people that know better doesn't do anything more than make the person making the threat look like a complete idiot. Don't get caught up in that. It won't work. Also, I agree you should keep the insurance on the vehicle. I'd even go so far as to make sure the vehicles are, in fact insured. You insure the vehicle primarily so if in fact he has no valid license likely won't affect the insurance at least until he gets into an accident or ticket, at which time the company likely would cancel the coverage. Newspapers, TV, radio, media as a whole... well, this isn't a huge story in news terms but someone might be interested. But I think I'd pursue it with low expectations. Disabling the car hasn't worked. So you need a different plan of attack. Take a deep breath and try to relax. I know it's easier said than done though. Obviously you can't be following him around all over, first because you don't have the time and secondly you could be guilty of stalking if he is angry enough to push it, which he may well be. But a private security firm or private investigator is able to, but of course that will cost something. They can gather evidence, video his operation and even be able to make a complaint, though I'm not sure that many would want to get that involved. I could contact my former PI firm and see if they have any suggestions but since the laws vary, I think you'd be better off to seek some guidance locally. Most good places won't charge you to talk to you about the case and give you some ideas. Again, my best to you and yours. If I think of anything else I'll post again. I know what a tough situation it is. And my experience wasn't quite as drastic as yours, though my dad should have quit driving 20 years earlier. But that's a whole different story.
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glenda_al
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
73 and still driving
cynic
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
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.
jannie
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
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?
joyfulguy
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
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

More About Incompetent Elderly Drivers

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abbey_cny

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