99 year old on wrong side of road and no headlights in RV

ksg5000 wrote:
My father had the attention span of a goldfish but he could pass any test Calif gave him. I finally hid his car keys and left him the telephone number of local cab company and a couple hundred bucks. He eventually found a way to start his car and ended up running through the front window of Denny's mistaking the gas pedal for the brake. Thankfully nobody was hurt but himself - he broke his hip and that was the beginning of the end. States need to step up and do a better job of testing.

You bring up a very real and sobering point with your Father, but testing is not going to make any difference.

I seen a lot of posts missing the elephant in the room.

I have been dealing with this issue the last 10 yrs with my Dad who is now 91.

He has Dementia.

Macular Degeneration in his eyes.

One eye IS blind the other barely passes the MINIMUM eyesight requirement for a drivers license (Eye DR would not pull his license).

Is 100% def in one ear, 90% def in the other.

Unable to walk steady enough to not fall even with a walker.

Has almost no strength to turn the steering wheel or even turn the ignition key.

Can't concentrate for more than one or two seconds then is off on another subject or thought.

Gets sick to his stomach if he looks up or down too fast and falls asleep in one or two minutes after sitting down..

He has had multiple accidents that we know of and many more that we don't, one destroyed the side of his car he was driving and he insists that he is going to fix the damage with a little bit of body filler..

We have found mud packed under the vehicle and the frame is full of the mud.

He WOULD be still driving IF I had not put my foot down with my siblings that the vehicles MUST LEAVE THE PROPERTY.

You folks just would not understand what it is like until you have had to deal with taking the keys away from your parents..

I suspect, the driver's kids should have taken some action and the female passenger was at fault also..

It isn't the states fault, it is the parents kids fault..

I am very thankful that my Mom willingly stopped driving the moment she no longer felt comfortable driving. Yes, it was a bit of a burden on me and my DW more so than my siblings since I live only a mile from my parents and my Mom relied on use to help her get the things she needed. But I treasure those times as good times for us to help my Mom when she needed it.

My Dad, well because of the Dementia totally believes that he is as healthy as a 20 yr old, nothing wrong with him, always something wrong with his glasses, hearing aid, ect.

According to him, the accident that smashed the side of his car was the FAULT OF THE OTHER DRIVER FOR DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. Sound "familiar"?

We were lucky nobody died..

I am not so sure a 99 yr old person really has a clear enough head, good enough vision or reaction time to safely drive.

I have already told my DW that there WILL be a day that I no longer feel comfortable towing a trailer. Hopefully I never slip like my Dad into Dementia and not be able to render good decisions about my competency level for driving.. If I do slip into Dementia, I just hope my DW and DD take action even if it angers me BEFORE someone gets killed..

So sad.
Thankfully my dad quit driving when he was about 90. He knew it wasn't safe anymore.

Driver education and proper screening are the only ways to reduce the number of such tragedies. DRL's have been mandatory on new vehicles sold in Canada since 1989 but they are not fool proof. Too many people rely on them for night driving forgetting that the tail lights are not on. We have drivers who resent government interference disabling them by pulling the fuse. Every time something is made idiot proof a better idiot comes along.

drsteve wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
99 years old certainly gets your attention and makes the news. But wrong way fatal collisions are a regular occurance for all age groups in the DFW area, if not every where else. Seems to be no answer to it.

Happens a lot here in MI too. Usually large amounts of alcohol and/or drugs are involved.

X2

Aside from the licensing issue, mandatory DRL's anyone? At least they keep people from driving with zero lights.

We have automatic headlights in our cars. Why do we not have that feature in our motorhomes?

BB_TX wrote:
99 years old certainly gets your attention and makes the news. But wrong way fatal collisions are a regular occurance for all age groups in the DFW area, if not every where else. Seems to be no answer to it.

Happens a lot here in MI too. Usually large amounts of alcohol and/or drugs are involved.

ksg5000 wrote:
States need to step up and do a better job of testing.

Yes they do, and they should start with student drivers.

My father had the attention span of a goldfish but he could pass any test Calif gave him. I finally hid his car keys and left him the telephone number of local cab company and a couple hundred bucks. He eventually found a way to start his car and ended up running through the front window of Denny's mistaking the gas pedal for the brake. Thankfully nobody was hurt but himself - he broke his hip and that was the beginning of the end. States need to step up and do a better job of testing.

99 years old certainly gets your attention and makes the news. But wrong way fatal collisions are a regular occurance for all age groups in the DFW area, if not every where else. Seems to be no answer to it.