Cyclist run over three times...but it was an "accident".
10-24-21, 05:37 AM
#26
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Coming out of an underground garage, at the pay station, I was behind someone in her 40s whom I don't know but do recognize from my business connections pull the corner into the station too tightly, hop a 10 inch curb with her rear wheel (!) and ram the side of her car into the steel pole protecting the pay box, hard. She backed up about five feet, changed nothing, and did the same thing again. . . twice. Coincidentally, I'd just been in an elevator with her watching her juggle three boxes, repeatedly dropping them, not really changing what she was unsuccessfully doing. The garage was sort of a more dramatic instant replay of the elevator escapade
You don't have to be in your 70s to be a dangerous idiot in a rush.
By the way, I imagine that most of the many people per day who turn right just in front of me without bothering to signal are not in their 70s.
I am 72, by the way. I do signal, and I do not try to run over pay boxes.
You don't have to be in your 70s to be a dangerous idiot in a rush.
By the way, I imagine that most of the many people per day who turn right just in front of me without bothering to signal are not in their 70s.
I am 72, by the way. I do signal, and I do not try to run over pay boxes.
Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, all this talk about old people in this thread illustrates the problems with trying to legislate by anecdote. Her age is the only thing we know about her and it may or may not have anything to do with what happened. There's also no reason to assume she's typical for her age.
10-24-21, 06:16 AM
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That's fair, I have no idea what would make sense for your country.
In the US, though, the most dangerous group of drivers by age is the age group that most recently was tested. I don't know where this idea that testing can duplicate real-world driving enough to pick up real safety issues is coming from.
10-24-21, 09:46 PM
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Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, all this talk about old people in this thread illustrates the problems with trying to legislate by anecdote. Her age is the only thing we know about her and it may or may not have anything to do with what happened. There's also no reason to assume she's typical for her age.
As far as "typical". The problem is that many drivers go from being competent drivers in their 60's to incompetent drivers by their 90's (if they live that long). And the deterioration can be fast. So, generally fine one year, and a couple of years later a menace on the road.
And, of course, there often is denial of how bad it really is.
Each person reaches that milestone at a different time. So, some may be just fine into their early 90's, and others might be basket cases by the mid 70's.
My experience with being around some elderly is that they experience a large degradation in problem solving skills.
I remember a few years ago that my grandfather had taken his electric razor apart to clean it. And, couldn't figure out how to put it back together. An older model, he should have been able to clean it with his eyes closed, but those skills were gone.
But, that lack of problem solving skills may also impact other things such as driving. So, it is OK as long as the car is going straight down the road, but it is easy to get flustered if the tiniest thing goes wrong (like an unexpected bump when pulling out of the driveway).
The other thing I'm worried about my mother is divided attention. So, don't talk about something that requires intense thought while she is driving. Again, something that I believe is getting worse over time.
10-25-21, 07:40 AM
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10-25-21, 07:55 AM
#31
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Hopefully most people would feel a bump and investigate.
As far as "typical". The problem is that many drivers go from being competent drivers in their 60's to incompetent drivers by their 90's (if they live that long). And the deterioration can be fast. So, generally fine one year, and a couple of years later a menace on the road.
And, of course, there often is denial of how bad it really is.
Each person reaches that milestone at a different time. So, some may be just fine into their early 90's, and others might be basket cases by the mid 70's.
My experience with being around some elderly is that they experience a large degradation in problem solving skills.
I remember a few years ago that my grandfather had taken his electric razor apart to clean it. And, couldn't figure out how to put it back together. An older model, he should have been able to clean it with his eyes closed, but those skills were gone.
But, that lack of problem solving skills may also impact other things such as driving. So, it is OK as long as the car is going straight down the road, but it is easy to get flustered if the tiniest thing goes wrong (like an unexpected bump when pulling out of the driveway).
The other thing I'm worried about my mother is divided attention. So, don't talk about something that requires intense thought while she is driving. Again, something that I believe is getting worse over time.
As far as "typical". The problem is that many drivers go from being competent drivers in their 60's to incompetent drivers by their 90's (if they live that long). And the deterioration can be fast. So, generally fine one year, and a couple of years later a menace on the road.
And, of course, there often is denial of how bad it really is.
Each person reaches that milestone at a different time. So, some may be just fine into their early 90's, and others might be basket cases by the mid 70's.
My experience with being around some elderly is that they experience a large degradation in problem solving skills.
I remember a few years ago that my grandfather had taken his electric razor apart to clean it. And, couldn't figure out how to put it back together. An older model, he should have been able to clean it with his eyes closed, but those skills were gone.
But, that lack of problem solving skills may also impact other things such as driving. So, it is OK as long as the car is going straight down the road, but it is easy to get flustered if the tiniest thing goes wrong (like an unexpected bump when pulling out of the driveway).
The other thing I'm worried about my mother is divided attention. So, don't talk about something that requires intense thought while she is driving. Again, something that I believe is getting worse over time.
Don't kid yourself, this kind of degradation can happen at any age for a myriad of reasons. You do understand you're describing a period of risk that extends 30 years (from 60-90), right? No matter what the source of quick degradation is, it's unlikely to line up timely with ANY schedule of retesting.
Being unable to adapt to an unexpected circumstance or cope with unexpected distractions is unlikely to get picked up by a driving test, if I'm not mistaken. In the OP case, do you really think it's likely that a driving test would have revealed that the driver would be likely to run over the same person 3 times because she wouldn't check what the bump was? And if the driver had been reported to be 40 years old, would we be discussing whether middle aged drivers need to be retested? I've seen plenty of drivers of all ages do stupid things, seizing on this woman's age as proof of anything is just an obvious case of confirmation bias. For all we know, she may just have been very stupid her entire life, just competent enough to pass a road test.
It's not an accident that 49 of the 50 states don't have this mandatory road retest, it's expensive and highly unlikely to be effective as a screening tool.
