Motorway madness + age
Discussion
Yesterday evening, pitch black and snowing, joined the local motorway and moved into the traffic only to see a truck and trailer doing an emergency swerve into the outside lane. Panic stations, cars shooting everywhere, no bent metal which I saw and all because...... an 80 year-old wrinkly (male), dark coloured car, NO LIGHTS but his interior light on because he couldn't see his speedo, and his speed on the motorway... believe it or not.......40kph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
B****y wrinklies...... I'm waiting to hear if the german police were brave enough to take his license off him!!!!!!!
Oh, dont get me started on Wrinklies....
I live on the border between a small town and the countryside. I regularily get flashed for overtaking people in the unrestricted zones (60MPH) who are doing 45MPH.... Then the really stupid part. When we hit the town / village where the speed limit is 30MPH then I slow down accordingly - normally because there is a school or similar. However, said wrinklies then still keep at their steady 45MPH....
Whos more dangerous? Speed kills eh? Well doing 45 in a 30 zone is a hefty fine and points and according to the current government adverts it is likely death for a child...
And they have the audacity to flash and abuse me for overtaking them? As far as I am concerned, I wouldnt mind re-taking my driving test every 5 years. Keep some of these nightmares off the roads...
Cheers,
Paul
I live on the border between a small town and the countryside. I regularily get flashed for overtaking people in the unrestricted zones (60MPH) who are doing 45MPH.... Then the really stupid part. When we hit the town / village where the speed limit is 30MPH then I slow down accordingly - normally because there is a school or similar. However, said wrinklies then still keep at their steady 45MPH....
Whos more dangerous? Speed kills eh? Well doing 45 in a 30 zone is a hefty fine and points and according to the current government adverts it is likely death for a child...
And they have the audacity to flash and abuse me for overtaking them? As far as I am concerned, I wouldnt mind re-taking my driving test every 5 years. Keep some of these nightmares off the roads...
Cheers,
Paul
I am over 40 (53 in fact) so you would probably class me as a wrinkly. I have been driving since I was 17 and have done maybe 25,000 mile per annum since with only 1 accident (when I was 23)and have seen my fair share of stupidity on the road. Frankly I cannot actually say that any specific age group dominates as bad drivers. I can recall just as many incidents where obvious inexperience caused motorway mayhem as I can that were caused by the failing faculties of the aged. If you look at the statistics it is young male drivers who have the huge majority of serious accidents so if we are into sweeping generalisations then that is the group that should be taken off the roads to make them safer. If however we are interested in road safety maybe we should all just give a bit more tolerance and a wider berth to young, old or any other driver we suspect is not completely on top of the situation
Sorry, I just knew that this tread might cause a problem. Dont get me wrong, when I am referring to "wrinklies" I am talking well over 70... I have seen some very good drivers who are of this age (Stirling Moss for example - OK, bad example).
But, it is all about the drivers who dont regularily drive. You know, once every two weeks in the little Nissan Micra... and then only 10 miles. It is so easy to get out of the habbit and loose some of your awareness (been there and it does happen).
So, no offence to people - it is a very emotional subject.
Cheers,
Paul
But, it is all about the drivers who dont regularily drive. You know, once every two weeks in the little Nissan Micra... and then only 10 miles. It is so easy to get out of the habbit and loose some of your awareness (been there and it does happen).
So, no offence to people - it is a very emotional subject.
Cheers,
Paul
My Dad is 65 now but still (albeit at my insistence mostly) drives his Renault GTA Turbo at politically incorrect speeds.
But when he was much younger (early 20's) he was so committed to going fast that he took his then company van (he was a photcopy fixer person), removed the engine and hotted it up - this was his COMPANY VAN for Chrissake.
Most of the time he drives like an old duffer though - I nag him about it. But it is likely to happen to us all, just I can't believe it will at my tender age.
Slap me in 40 years time when I'm about to hit 70 if I'm driving like an old fart. Actually, we probably wont have the internal combustion engine by then, anyway - my car will be in a museum.
Stirling Moss, John Surtees etc are rare exceptions to the old fart rule.
But when he was much younger (early 20's) he was so committed to going fast that he took his then company van (he was a photcopy fixer person), removed the engine and hotted it up - this was his COMPANY VAN for Chrissake.
Most of the time he drives like an old duffer though - I nag him about it. But it is likely to happen to us all, just I can't believe it will at my tender age.
Slap me in 40 years time when I'm about to hit 70 if I'm driving like an old fart. Actually, we probably wont have the internal combustion engine by then, anyway - my car will be in a museum.
Stirling Moss, John Surtees etc are rare exceptions to the old fart rule.
The bit that pisses me off is when the old gits have the cheek to say "I'm more experienced than you laddy I've been driving 50 years" the bit is a lot of the old sods (note I say a lot not all 
) still drive like they did 50 years ago. The car might be newer but they just don't keep pace their reactions are slow, they don't even know what lane to be in at a roundabout, motorways are beyond them, oh bollox I could go on for ever. The quote is "they don't have 50 years experience they have 1, they just repeat it 50 times" As for retests yes without a doubt every 5 years and sod it throw in a theory test and basic mechanics (if you can't change a wheel stay on the sofa) as well lets weed out some of the old gits and free up some room. Oh to hell with it if they fail a retest 3 times put them down and save the oxygen.
Does anyone know is it still feasible that there are drivers on the road who have never even taken a test of any kind yet have full licences ???
) still drive like they did 50 years ago. The car might be newer but they just don't keep pace their reactions are slow, they don't even know what lane to be in at a roundabout, motorways are beyond them, oh bollox I could go on for ever. The quote is "they don't have 50 years experience they have 1, they just repeat it 50 times" As for retests yes without a doubt every 5 years and sod it throw in a theory test and basic mechanics (if you can't change a wheel stay on the sofa) as well lets weed out some of the old gits and free up some room. Oh to hell with it if they fail a retest 3 times put them down and save the oxygen. Does anyone know is it still feasible that there are drivers on the road who have never even taken a test of any kind yet have full licences ???
quote:
Is there ANYONE here over 40? !!!!
Well, you for a start presumably
As drivers get older their accident profile changes a lot. The young (and I've just dropped out of this bracket, to the great relief of my insurers
) have high speed, frequently fatal, accidents as a consequence of pushing the limits and lack of judgement. The old have lower speed accidents and accidents arising from lack of concentration, but almost never lack of judgement accidents... IMHO the only answer to this is to radically overhaul the testing structure in the UK. I would suggest that anyone failing three times have a compulsary break of six months to allow them to gain additional supervised practice. In addition a re-test every five years would sharpen up the skills of all drivers, particularly if there was a requirement for night driving and motorway driving in the test.
Before we leap to slag off the elderly it's worth taking into account that for every old buffer crawling up the M1 at 5o'clock there are ten with the good sense to realise that they are still fit to drive but shouldn't push themselves as hard as they did at 25 (or even at 65.)
Some tw@ overtaking at 85 on a blind corner poses himself and you a much greater threat than a trilby doing 60, never leaving the inside lane and being intimidated by HGVs ever will.
this reads like "speed kills". As I've said before I don't believe that for a moment. Inappropriate speed kills and maintaining appropriate speed is a skill that takes experience to learn (unless you drive a 3-series, in which case you'll never pick it up 
)Well, I'm 42 and firmly believe in retesting every five years to the age of 65, then every 2 years to the age of 75. After that annual testing should be required, I also have seen some frightening driving from old wrinklies, who claim they are safe and have never had an accident. Reactions are slow and observation is practically non-existent.
for what it's worth my wife nearly got totalled twice this week by wrinklies, I'm 43 (I think) and consider myself becoming more aware and defensive as I degenenerate towards senility, but....behind the wheel of the Griff (when I get the chance) I am bestowed with the skills and reactions of a startled rabbit and laugh in the face of souped up novas and calibras...forgot what my point was as I'm in post celebration mood after scoring a new job 
but I think it was fcuk growing old
but I think it was fcuk growing old
As I was the one to start this'un, I'm past my 1/2 century and do drive at politically incorrect speeds on the road and track! I was also the young dimbo who pranged cars due to overconfidence and enthusiasm! Pranged a company car 5 times in one year only one of which was anothers fault. Needless to say unpopular with the leasing company! To come back to the original thread, I spoke to the local plod who I know and got a lookin to the report on the wrinkly as follows....
When asked why he was driving without lights " I can see in snow better without lights"
When asked why no lights at night " as it was snowing and I can see better without"
When asked why he was driving with his interior light on "I couldn't see my speedo"
When asked why driving at 40kph on a 120kph section of motorway "it was snowing and I wanted to slow down the loonies doing idiotic speeds" NB snow wasn't lying..........
When asked if he knew that he could possibly have been killed by the truck "oh, they've got good brakes"
Police confiscated the car and his license thank goodness..... At 83 he'll not drive again unless he was in local politics or he was a civil servant (Beamte) then he might get it back (out of sympathy for the poor lowpaid (unwanted) colleague)........... Type of car? Merc naturally...
Nuff said...................
Edited by JMGS4 on Saturday 15th December 10:23
I'm a private hire(taxi)driver and we all have to have a medical every 3 years.Dexterity,vision,blood pressure,urine etc etc are tested.Because of this, several of my friends (aged 25 to 55) have had to have spectacles or existing ones altered.One had diabetes diagnosed and is able to combat this by correct diet. NONE of these people realised there was anything wrong with them.
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