assandache7 Posted November 2015
Breaking news! On my local station..Elderly women drives on sidewalk at shopping center.. Strikes 3 people kills 1 and injures herself..
Follow
Share
She now faces homicide charges... Imagine your parent in prison, when this could have been avoided.
Take the keys and car away and make yourself or someone available to transport elder to appts. or errands..
So sad!!
This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
17 Comments
This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Popular Questions
Start a Discussion
That said, yes, if there are any doubts at all about your own or a loved ones abilities, get off the road. I've often thought we should have graduated licences for seniors: no freeways and home by dark, no travel beyond 50 km from home?
I really hate this anti-elder attitude. Sometimes I think it gets more attention than drunk drivers causing accidents.
Perhaps this woman had to swerve and get on the sidewalk to avoid some young idiots walking and texting or playing on their wireless devices while in the driving lanes. I've had to swerve or slam on the brakes because of this several times.
One man almost caused an exit ramp pile-up when he drifted at right angles to the ramp, across a concrete barrier, down the side, over another barrier and directly onto the exit ramp. It was obvious that he was distracted as I was the first to almost hit him and I clearly saw a handheld device in his hand; he wasn't even looking at the traffic.
Granted, he may have some other mental issues to manage drifting down an incline onto the ramp, but that device was clearly his object of attention.
And while older drivers can be hazardous to the public, they're not Public Enemies No 1. I've yet to read that an elderly person armed with an AK-47 has shot or wounded several people in a mass murder situation b/c he/she felt alienated from society. There's a lot of potential rage in younger people who are disenfranchised, and it does of course garner major publicity. But it's a lot different than an older person losing faculties accidentally creating an accident, which I'm not excusing. I'm just suggesting that it be kept in perspective.
Another option is to not swerve in order to avoid hitting something in the road, since most new cars are designed to take the front-end collision. Swerving to miss something can cause a driver to LOSE CONTROL of the vehicle, possibly causing WORSE results.
Those are the facts and most elder drivers should take a defensive driving course. Perhaps it should coincide with Medicare. That would be fair. You want to drive? Great! PROVE that you still have the necessary skills. That there's no drivers education refresher requirement for old drivers is insane. Just like we don't put teenagers on the road without drivers education, old people shouldn't be on the road without drivers education.
If I may...."I want to die peacefully in my sleep like gramps did...not screaming in terror like the people in the back seat of his car."
My apologies in advance.
I remember recently reading of a young woman in her 20's who plowed into Oklahoma State University's homecoming parade with her car killing 4 and injuring 50.
One thing that gets me is when I see an elder using a Smartphone while driving. Now who in their right mind gave the elder such a device? I am sure the elder wasn't standing outside the Apple store for 10 hours waiting for a new updated device to go on sale.
I know some accidents with elders have to do with mixing up the gas and brake pedal. I grew up learning to drive using my left foot for the brake, my Dad was a left foot braker, so was his Dad. Maybe it is time to make that more of the normal then right foot for both pedals. Just a suggestion.
If I had my way, all major roads would be 35 mph.
Further irony: 2 days after Mom's 90th B'Day I was helping her go thru her mail, pay bills, etc. Found the notice from weeks earlier: Mom's DL had expired on her B'Day. Mom had done nothing about it. It required a vision test and Mom tried to convince me she could do this w/a pair of $10 WalMart readers! No way! Mom!
Mom's excellent geriatrician had diagnosed her a year earlier w/MCI. I called him (have Med POA) and he agreed to tell her she had to give up the DL. It worked and I wasn't the "know nothing, arrogant kid and " bad guy". We arranged several options for Mom to get wherever, whenever....sold the car.
But here's the finale: several weeks later Mom gets a renewed DL in the mail....WTH?! Yessss, the politicians in the great state of FL know their largest voter base....and they aren't going to do anything (including mandatory driver tests for DL renewal at age 90) to pi** them off.....luckily, the car had already been sold.
The other thing to realize is that voluntary reporting serves a purpose - people with epilepsy with well-controlled seizures can drive, and need to know they can come clean to their doc about a single seizure due to missing meds or something and decide for themselves when they are on an even keel again rather than wait the usual 6 or 12 months stipulated in state law. BTW, most accidents involving people with epilepsy are caused by....
Speeding.
I have epilepsy, but have not had a seizure since 1984. When I first moved to CA, I was having heart issues. I was in the hospital for those heart issues. He brought a neurologist in to meet me and suggested I try a new med out at the time for epilepsy that could help me lost weight. I agreed. When I started going to that neurologist, even though at that time it had been over 15 yrs since I'd had a seizure, I was reported to the DMV. I had my license suspended until I could go in and explain to them that I hadn't had any seizures in 15 yrs, at which point the examiner wanted to know why we were holding a hearing. The next time I went in the hospital a male night nurse looked at my chart, saw I had epilepsy and tied me to the bedrails so I wouldn't fall out if I had a seizure (even though my last one had been 15 yrs prior. People are barbaric about the disease. I prefer not to report.
Voluntary rather than mandatory reporting, at least in theory, lets people with good judgment use it - and my state is voluntary. I would have the *option* to report someone I thought would be dangerous behind the wheel and did not care enough about themselves or others for whatever reason to refrain. I have not actually had to ever do this, but bear in mind that I am in the pediatric not the geriatric arena professionally and I think at least one or two of our pediatric neurologists (I"m a PM&R doc) have. The other truth in this situation is that poorly controlled heart disease and diabetes pose about the same degree of risk as epilepsy but they are more common and people tend not to think about them the same way....