Why senior citizens shouldn't be allowed to drive

[Gamma Akutabi]

My eighty something neighbor crashed through the living of the house across the street one day and my mom and I were just coming home from lunch. There's a very large hole and we're staring at it and she comes out and says "Oh, I did that." I will be accepting donations for my funeral now.

 

[Turtle Tamer Kammy]

Hmmm. Not all senior citizens do that. My grandma kept her license (and her marbles) without killing anyone, crashing or getting ticketed until she died. She was 86, so yeah.

 

[GuitarHero]

Yeah, my grandmother has somehow made it to the age of 58 without having been pulled over or ticketed for anything. The funny thing is that she drives practicaly every day.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Shouldn't she be like arrested or something instead of just hanging out at the house with the hole in it?

 

[Gamma Akutabi]

She lives across the street from the holey house (bad joke I know) and she won't get arrested. The Code Administration was out for about four hours and came back for another two.

 

[Shuko]

Not all senior citizens should be mandated to live without a means of transportation other than the handicapped bus. :/ Some of them function quite well with their abilities. You ought to revise your statement to say that only blind, slow-reactionary seniors should be removed from their licenses, lol.

 

[DarkEliteKaren]

On one side of my family, my grandparents reached a point where they obviously could not drive anymore. My grandpa was known for falling asleep /anywhere/ at the drop of a hat, including in the car at stoplights. Once, we were driving back through the mountains with my grandpa, and he kept dozing off (and there was no one else in the car who could drive; that was a bit of a wake-up call to my parents and aunts and uncles). We actually laugh about it now, since we did get home safely that day, but still.

However, on the other side of my family, both of my grandparents are still safe, responsible drivers (even if grandpa does have a bit of a lead foot from time to time, but he's still not as bad as my younger brother or my dad).

So, yeah. All older folks shouldn't be restricted just because some are no longer able to drive well. If that were the case, I'd say that no one should be allowed to drive. I know a fair few bad drivers and they range in age from teenagers all the way up to the elderly.

 

[Joey]

I'm all for mandatory retaking of driving tests when you reach a certain age. That way the people who can still drive fine can continue to do so, and the people who drive through houses will be kept off the road.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

^ Agreed

 

[Gamma Akutabi]

Atleast someone agrees with me.

 

[Dark Fire]

Living in Florida you quickly realise that there are a lot of senior people who should not be driving. It's kinda scary driving around the streets there sometimes. On several occasions my mom almost ended up in a crash due to poor driving decisions by them.

The thing about mandatory retakes is that a simple slipup may cause a perfectly capable driver his liscence. This goes for all ages I guess. My friend got an automatic fail on the way back to the driver insurance thingy because he waited too long to drive to the boulevard.

As long as they can drive I think they should be allowd to drive, but if not ... they shouldn't =D

 

[Roses Ablaze]

Unfortunately all the lawmakers are old, so don't count on anyone doing anything about it anytime soon.

 

[Shuko]

Unfortunately all the lawmakers are old, so don't count on anyone doing anything about it anytime soon.

You've got it backwards. There are mostly young people in politics now (even though the "lawmakers," i.e. judges at the supreme court level, etc. are older), but it's the old people who actually go out and vote. If more of us younger people voted, we could get something like that passed more easily.