OJ, that was a generous gesture. Proof indeed that you are very kind soul who could recognize the other drivers pain and give it precedence over your own.

"England's Prince Phillip, 97, accident a week or so ago where the Land Rover that he was driving turned over but he was uninjured, but the people in the other car sustained some injuries."

I'm sorry but in my opinion, no one who is 97 years old has any business driving anywhere unaccompanied! I don't even think they should be behind the wheel! At some point in time, perceptions decline, vision deteriorates and reactions slow to the point where it is no longer safe to operate a motor vehicle. Once you hit 75 (maybe even 70), I think driver's tests should be an annual occurrence, as should be one's license renewal.

From age 80, our province requires that we attend a consultation with about a dozen others, every two years, led by an instructor from the Dep't. of Transport, to discuss aging and driving, e.g. ordinary drivers instructed to allow 2 seconds between the time that the vehicle ahead of you passes an object and your vehicle doing such - for seniors - 3 seconds.

Then a wtitten test, check vision, especially peripheral capacity, and some are required to take a driving test.

I've been through five, will be at sixth soon. I claim that many seniors are capable drivers, and agree that they should be evaluated.

BUT ... periodic ongoing evaluation would be useful for all drivers, it seems to me. Might cause them to borrow the Driver's Handbook from the library, if nothing more revolutionary.

ole joyful

My DFIL in Ontario did that program, and kept passing his driver exam, darn it. He didn't drive much, but would drive from time to time and it was, well, scary. Finally DMIL had a heart-to-heart with someone at the facility, and they asked him to come in again "because of some discrepancy" and they didn't pass him. That was the end of his driving, thank goodness. He was 95, passed away at 97.

My own parents stopped driving of their own volition well before age 90. They still own the car, though, so that we can drive them. (They can't get into our minivan.)

How do you make that determination for yourself? I'd find it hard to do!

joyfulguy - In the midst of your own sorrow you showed great compassion. I would imagine that stayed with the truck driver.

From my understanding of what the news said, England doesn't have any regulations regarding elderly drivers and retesting their competency.

Our province does. My mom lived in a very small community but would come down here to the big city to visit. I was driving with her when she blasted through a stop sign but fortunately no one was coming the other way. We got back to my place, I held out my hand and said give me your car keys your driving days down here are over. She handed them over to me. Her little town only had one main street and I wasn't worried about her driving there. She eventually moved down here and sold her car and gave up her licence - she was 86.

When my mother was 86, she'd had an illness where her doctor had asked her not to drive 'temporarily'. When she was well, he told me the HMO lawyers wouldn't let him give permission for her to drive again even though he felt she could. I can be her worst critic, but also her biggest defender and arranged for her to be evaluated (cognitively and driving skills - the evaluator went out with her behind the wheel and rode with her, much like an initial drivers license test). He said she would have his blessing to drive if she would take two brush up classes for driving.

Brush up ;0) She'd never had a lesson or test, she'd bought her license at the corner drugstore in Kansas for something like 50 cents. i.e. She didn't know, had never heard, two hands on the wheel and drove left handed for her evaluation. But - she took the required two classes at her own expense, passed with the instructors recommendation and resumed driving. In her city of about 38,000 and not on the freeway.

Two years later she sold her home, car, moved to independent living in a city of more than 600,000 and its traffic where she didn't have the confidence to drive. That time it was her idea, and worked out fine - we didn't have to have the 'time to give me your keys talk'.

The death of my father was less troubling for me, as I had spent only occasional time with him since I left home at around 18, than for my brother, who'd taken over the farm. They got together often, he had dinner with them most Sunday nights, they did his wash, etc.

It wasn't as though I'd been involved in the accident: I was something of a bystander.

And it is important for us, sometimes, to stand in someone else's shoes.

As my mother was out of our home from when I was around age 6 (died when I was 13, she about 39, of TB, I think, after years in psych. hospital), Dad was the main parental influence in my life - as you people at a distance can tell from hearing me quote some of his sayings from time to time.

I think that in a number of ways I am somewhat like my father, though having experienced a different world view.

ole joyful

That was so kind and thoughtful OJ. You helped that man more than you could ever imagine. I am sure.

Thank you, Dolly.

Good wishes to you as you navigate through a difficult time.

ole joyful