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

[TCINTN]

99 year old driving RV on wrong side with no headlights kills two teenagers. In Florida

[tomman58]

Deb and Ed M wrote:

tomman58 wrote:
one factor that isn't mentioned are the road markings and lighting. A few years ago my garmin said turn left and I did at a totally unlit intersection in the rain at 4;30am. I was on the wrong of a divided highway. Luckily it became a 2 lane in just a 100 yards. My bad, but with help from poorly designed intersection and my lack of knowledge of the area. One trys to put everyone in the same box but there are plenty of other factors.

But in Florida (no snowplows to take them out), there are raised pavement reflectors, and they will light up BRIGHT RED if you are in the wrong lane. But you probably can't see them if your headlights are off....

Sorry was in Florida near Pensacola. We were coming from Gulf shores. We were there again this year and now the road was redone.

[toedtoes]

Either we don't have that type of reflectors in California or I've never driven the wrong way to notice them shining bright red....

I would suggest that if the driver didn't notice that his headlights weren't on, that he wouldn't have noticed the reflectors.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Planning wrote:
How about:

mandatory behind the wheel testing (in conjunction with eye and knowledge testing) for anyone above age "X",...

and also for anyone involved in an injury-producing traffic collision or a history of 2 or more minor traffic collisions in a two year time period?

How would that be unreasonable?

I like this, but maybe add a hearing test, too? My Mom confessed that she had been driving, blind as a bat, for a year (OMG!) before she willingly gave up her keys. And my dear Husband, "Car Guy" supreme, will be a real challenge to take the keys from some day. Of course, he's still drag-racing at the moment, so a perfectly-proficient driver; but I think he'd sooner cut off an ear than give up his car keys.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

tomman58 wrote:
one factor that isn't mentioned are the road markings and lighting. A few years ago my garmin said turn left and I did at a totally unlit intersection in the rain at 4;30am. I was on the wrong of a divided highway. Luckily it became a 2 lane in just a 100 yards. My bad, but with help from poorly designed intersection and my lack of knowledge of the area. One trys to put everyone in the same box but there are plenty of other factors.

But in Florida (no snowplows to take them out), there are raised pavement reflectors, and they will light up BRIGHT RED if you are in the wrong lane. But you probably can't see them if your headlights are off....

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

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

That's kind of a good point - had the elderly man's RV turned its headlights on, he would have (hopefully) been aware he was in the wrong lane because the highway road markers will reflect/shine red if you're in the wrong lane. But you probably need your headlights on to make them reflect....

[Joatha]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Hopefully, the trajectory of the self driving car is going to cross my age before my driving skills diminish to a dangerous level. I look forward to crawling into the back seat and telling Alexa to drive me to the Opium Den.

Same here. I am 51 now. I figure the earliest age I'll start to face a significant loss in ability is around 70-75. It might happen sooner (but odd are against it). It might happen later. Only God knows for sure when it will happen. But, I figure they have about 20 years or so for driverless cars to become available for it to be viable transportation. I think that is enough time for it to happen.

[Dutch_12078]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
While there is surely a tweak available for most every law, I am willing to bet that the lack of a driver's license (if the 99 year old had one in the first place), would not have stopped the guy from driving down the wrong side of a divided highway with no lights on in the middle of the night. There are already laws in place making those actions illegal.

According to various articles related to the incident, the gentleman had recently successfully passed a written and driving test to renew his drivers license. As it stands now, he will not be charged with anything however. He died in the hospital...

[gbopp]

dodge guy wrote:

gbopp wrote:

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

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

How is that going to help the older drivers?

Obviously, it will help them be around long enough to be an older driver.

[Planning]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
There are already laws in place making those actions illegal.

wnjj wrote:
Making any significant changes to "the system" assumes that the changes can effectively address the issues.

It is not "in-place laws" or a change in the legislation or "system" that ultimately changes behavior; it is the pain, and the surety of experiencing it that accompanies the violation of the legislation.

No cat sits on a hot stove twice, and in the future they also avoid cold ones.

Make the stove hot enough and the greatest majority will avoid it, just from watching the first few running away smoking.

Public flogging worked, and when it did not, public hanging did.

Start early and enough and you need it less.

Old fools usually start as young ones.

[wnjj]

drsteve wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:

Well I have a problem with it. I don't like the idea of creating BS laws to fix non-existent problems. In the grand scheme of things considering the trillions of miles driven every year, the system seems to be working just fine like it is.

The very first post in this thread proves that there is indeed a problem, and that the system is NOT working just fine.

And for some reason, at a time when there are more drivers on the road than ever before, most public school systems have eliminated driver education from their curriculum. And with more and more older drivers who face a future of deteriorating skills, many states no longer do road tests at the DMV, nor do they require one for license renewal.

Making any significant changes to "the system" assumes that the changes can effectively address the issues. That's a BIG assumption in my mind. The "testing" we have barely resembles actual driving and furthermore people are usually on their best behavior during those tests. Hence, one of the few things you can test for is eyesight as that can't be faked and is often overlooked when it slowly degrades. Perhaps a reaction time test is in order though even that unfairly penalizes someone with poor reaction time who is still a safe driver at lower speeds.

In my opinion, the anecdotal observations of how bad all the other drivers are do not correlate with how many would fail a retest.

[westernrvparkow]

troubledwaters wrote:

Planning wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:

Planning wrote:
How about:

mandatory behind the wheel testing (in conjunction with eye and knowledge testing) for anyone above age "X",...

and also for anyone involved in an injury-producing traffic collision or a history of 2 or more minor traffic collisions in a two year time period?

How would that be unreasonable?

So how about we make that x = 16, not what do you think of the idea?

No problem for me whatsoever. Those that can, do.

And if I cannot pass it, I do not belong on the road, regardless of age. Performance talks, everything else, including BS, walks.

Well I have a problem with it. I don't like the idea of creating BS laws to fix non-existent problems. In the grand scheme of things considering the trillions of miles driven every year, the system seems to be working just fine like it is.

While there is surely a tweak available for most every law, I am willing to bet that the lack of a driver's license (if the 99 year old had one in the first place), would not have stopped the guy from driving down the wrong side of a divided highway with no lights on in the middle of the night. There are already laws in place making those actions illegal.

[wilber1]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Hopefully, the trajectory of the self driving car is going to cross my age before my driving skills diminish to a dangerous level. I look forward to crawling into the back seat and telling Alexa to drive me to the Opium Den.

X3

[Ductape]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Hopefully, the trajectory of the self driving car is going to cross my age before my driving skills diminish to a dangerous level. I look forward to crawling into the back seat and telling Alexa to drive me to the Opium Den.

:B

[drsteve]

troubledwaters wrote:

Well I have a problem with it. I don't like the idea of creating BS laws to fix non-existent problems. In the grand scheme of things considering the trillions of miles driven every year, the system seems to be working just fine like it is.

The very first post in this thread proves that there is indeed a problem, and that the system is NOT working just fine.

And for some reason, at a time when there are more drivers on the road than ever before, most public school systems have eliminated driver education from their curriculum. EWe also have more and more older drivers who face a future of deteriorating skills, yet many states no longer do road tests at the DMV, nor do they require one for license renewal.