Well the tv sites are all reporting th e87 year old was driving the car now but we shall wait and see.
M1 accident
- Thread starter kaptainmarc
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Well the tv sites are all reporting th e87 year old was driving the car now but we shall wait and see.
Man of Honour
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I cannot imagine how frightening it must have been for the old boy and for the rest of the traffic dealing with something like that. Tragic.
I travel from Leeds down the A1 to St Albans every Monday morning there was a considerable amount of extra traffic this morning.
Such as a sad story.
My question is, why is a 87 year old driving around at 2am? (not saying they're not allowed to, just seems an "out of the ordinary" situation to be in)
Such as a sad story.
My question is, why is a 87 year old driving around at 2am? (not saying they're not allowed to, just seems an "out of the ordinary" situation to be in)
Soldato
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BBC are reporting 87 year old car driver went the wrong way and hit a van. Tragic
I live ~10 miles from the M1 and it took me 15 minutes just to get out of my estate this morning. I just don't get how traffic gets so bad every time something happens on the motorway!
Same way as you have a heart attack if one of your major arteries becomes blocked. Same kind of thing - fluid dynamics.
shouldn't be driving at that age, totally irresponsible of him
the government has gone the wrong way on this - the elderly ought to have annual tests when they hit 70 and should be strongly encouraged to stop by the time they're 80...
But,but, think of all the votes you would lose................
Not another one. We have a go at the USA for continued mass shootings and doing nothing about it, but then we let this happen time and time again with some old person driving the wrong way up a motorway. IMHO it has the same potential for loss of life although granted not deliberate.
I have almost been a victim of this several years ago with some old codger driving the wrong way up a dual carriageway and nearly wiping me out head on.
Compulsory testing for over 70's is needed.
Caporegime
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Not many 87 year olds drive vans tbh.
We have a go at the USA for continued mass shootings and doing nothing about it, but then we let this happen time and time again with some old person driving the wrong way up a motorway. IMHO it has the same potential for loss of life although granted not deliberate.
I have almost been a victim of this several years ago with some old codger driving the wrong way up a dual carriageway and nearly wiping me out head on.
Compulsory testing for over 70's is needed.
Like I have said, political suicide for any government who tries to bring that in.
Most of the over 70s would vote for the opposition.
Old people get really annoyed at people telling them what to do. My grandfather refused to stop driving despite been bad enough that he needed a cataract operation and waited the long time on the nhs to get one.
It was only when he went in for the op that my parents took his car keys away and refused to let him have them back post op. He was 88 at the time.
They miss their independence at not been able to drive and refuse to give it up voluntarily.
I doubt that most people over 70 would pass a driving test.
My old bosses mother was just as bad. She wore glasses but wouldn't wear them for driving and couldn't drive at night. More than once, if she had run out of time and it had got dark she had to ring up to get somebody to come and pick her up. I once met her driving in daylight as i was coming up to a T junction and she was turning right into it. She turned right and cut the corner so much she was fully over onto my side of the road. Luckily for me i saw her coming and pulled up way short of the junction.
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Caporegime
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Not wanting to get in the way of a nice sensationalist rant about elderly drivers:
http://www.racfoundation.org/assets...ident casualty comparisons - box - 110511.pdf
Ban the under 50s!
http://www.racfoundation.org/assets...ident casualty comparisons - box - 110511.pdf
Ban the under 50s!
Not wanting to get in the way of a nice sensationalist rant about elderly drivers:
[spoiler[
http://www.racfoundation.org/assets...ident casualty comparisons - box - 110511.pdf[/spoiler]
Ban the under 50s!
There's an awful lot of under 15's driving cars there!
That's number of deaths, not accidents caused by age groups. I would agree that under 25's will cause more accidents than over 50's but it'd be interesting to see the stat as a number per 1000 drivers.
Not wanting to get in the way of a nice sensationalist rant about elderly drivers:
http://www.racfoundation.org/assets...ident casualty comparisons - box - 110511.pdf
Ban the under 50s!
that doesn't tell us anything about how safe elderly drivers are
I mean it shows us that, for example, a 10 year old is more likely to die on the road than an 80 year old... but that is more down to the fact that 80 year olds are less likely to be on the road (whether as a passenger or driver) than 10 year olds in the first place
your stats and chart are irrelevant
I will admit I almost caused something serious (well would have been me squished by a lorry really) when driving in Europe while negotiating a rather big motorway junction with a bunch of loops at night thinking there was 2 lanes only to be met by a lorry coming round the bend towards me at great speed and no way to go back into my lane, I owe that big V6 lump from Mercedes my life for letting me throttle out of a situation 
I remember last summer there was a story of an old boy driving the wrong way down the motorway. The cops had managed to stop traffic and there was a traffic car further on up the road and they put their car into his path to stop him. Pretty ballsy move.
My grandad got to a point last year were he was taking the car out to go to the shops and forgetting where he was going. So we confiscated his keys. Turned out that was the first sign of the tumour in his head. The car was given to a cousin and that was the last time he drove.
My grandad got to a point last year were he was taking the car out to go to the shops and forgetting where he was going. So we confiscated his keys. Turned out that was the first sign of the tumour in his head. The car was given to a cousin and that was the last time he drove.
Better to look at per mile
I could only find stats from 1990 from the states im afraid. I suspect the uk figures would be similar though.
Clearly young drivers a re a major issue and i have always agreed that we should introduce a secondary level of licence where a young person cant driver a car over a certain bhp and cant travel on motorways or at night until additional training and test is passed.
Interesting to see the fatality rate per mile travelled is much higher in over 75s than 16-19 year olds though.
Even these analysis (again from the states) shows that over 85's are involved in more fatalities than under 20s
https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/2012OlderDriverRisk.pdf
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From what I can tell, those stats don't show anything about the cause of incidents, simply the ages involved?
It makes sense that an over 85 is more likely to die in an accident than a 16-19 year old, since their age can compound any injuries (e.g. a broken bone or so that a teen would quickly heal from could prove fatal for someone in their 80s)
This shouldn't be an age group vs age group debate, it's missing the point. Elderly drivers will make errors, have poor situational awareness and have slow reactions (generalisation, I know) and as such they should be more heavily restricted (either driving tests, psychometric or medicals). You need to look at things other than fatalities such as other minor prangs that never get reported (things like using their bumpers to feel their way into parking spaces...). Elderly drivers who aren't a risk have nothing to worry about, but unfortunately they won't see it like that.
True and the artical does say that the number of fatalities is increased in the over 70 for that very reason.
However, the number of accidents per mile travelled increases again once you reach 70.
I think things should be done at both ends of the spectrum.
Soldato
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According to the BBC website it looks like the 87Yr old was driving the wrong way and crashed into a van killing the passenger of the van and himself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-34503112