General Chat

My feeling is that all drivers should be retested every few years but that would be so costly in terms of money and manpower that I doubt it would ever happen.

Driving from Bath to Suffolk on Monday we had two near misses. The first was when a driver on the M4 decided to move from the inside to the middle lane and apparently didn't notice we were in that lane and very close to him. I only caught a glimpse of the driver but he looked young.

Later in our journey we came to a point where the motorway forked. There was plenty of advance warning to get drivers into the correct lanes, but one chap suddenly realised he was starting to go down the wrong fork so he swung his car round, crossed the white "not to be driven on lines" and bounced back on to the motorway, nearly crashing into us. This driver looked to be in his 40s.

It was luck that we didn't have a vehicle close to us on our outside but it was the quick reactions and skill of the elderly driver (my OH) that avoided two nasty collisions as he was able to swerve to the right and accelerate out of trouble.

A bad driver is a bad driver whatever his age.

No apology needed as it is immaterial which road it was - the fact remains that people do drive the wrong way along roads, dual carriageways and motorways and recent news reports have highlighted some elderly people doing this.

An apology here.

Talking with my daughter about elderly drivers and the time the driver in front of us turned left too soon, she reminded me that it was not the A1M but the dual carriageway A19 which we were joining at Castle Eden.

It was my daughter I was taking somewhere where she had an early start.

This stretch of the A19 is a fast-moving black spot. One of my friends was killed near there.

Sorry for getting the two roads muddled but I hope I am forgiven as everything else was the same.

It is sad and tragic cases such as these that highlight the need for some form of ability/capability assessment.

MY thoughts too, Joy.......


Sorry to post this, but yet another "Elderly" driver killed in wrong way collision....
near me in Peterborough, this time........
I suppose, that for we drivers that think we are being reasonably "with it" find it difficult to understand how people get onto the wrong carriageway, unless maybe as I said earlier..............blindly following sat nav instructions...........

Bob

Just seen your post Bob. If I had made that mistake at that time of day I think I would have reversed carefully and hoped that nobody else had made the same mistake as I had. By reversing I would have been travelling in the same direction as anyone leaving the motorway.

A much better thing than continuing in the wrong direction.

I meant a.m. of course, Bob, and the driver crossed the carriageway a little too soon, turning right, not left, thereby travelling down the off-slip-road instead of joining the on-slip road as I did.

Chrissie, I had not realised that the driver was 87. It reinforces my earlier posting stating that I agree with fit-to-drive tests (or words to that effect).

Seriously though, irrespective of age IF you DID get on the wrong slip road....and you realised in time,.how should you get out of it?
phone old bill?
try to reverse with utmost caution? or what......???

If , as many people do, they were relying on a sat nav,
at times, especially on many exited roundabouts the sat nav is SO slow in responding it might be easy to take a wrong exit...........but due to the usually acute angles of off slips, it should be nigh impossible to turn left, down an off slip

5pm on a sunday morning?............

I was very surprised JoyLouise that it was an 87 year old driver who was one of the two killed yesterday as the accident occurred just after 2 am.

Chris

A few years ago I was out about 5 pm one snowy Sunday morning and heading for the A1M in dreadful visibility. I am no spring chicken.

The car in front of me turned right onto the slip road to join the A1M except that it was the slip road to come off the motorway. It was blowing a blizzard and I tooted and tooted but his/her rear lights were not visible after a few yards and I certainly was not going to follow him/her.

I often wonder what happened when he/she got onto the carriageway. I also wonder how old the driver was because the likelihood of it being an elderly driver at that time on a Sunday morning is fairly remote I would have thought.

The double fatal accident on the M1 yesterday which it seems was caused by an elderly gentleman driving the wrong way down the motorway is the third recent accident I've read about which has been caused by an elderly driver driving on the wrong side of the road.


Chris

yeah they'd likely squander on wild wimmen, booze n fags........

Bob

and you can read that as you wish"!!! ;-)

Good for you Brenda. You are right - I am sure kids and grandkids would spend it quicker than we oldies would. :-D

Well...I went mad yesterday and used a matured isa to treat myself to a new car...
At 80 yr old I'm still fit to drive,drive a hard bargain as well ,in buying....why not?.

I want ease in not having to worry about MOTs for 3years and I'm spending my kids,grandkids and great grandkids inheritance...they'd spend it quicker!...so you can now call me a skier!!

And I could do hand signals if required!,

See it's back. I've re-read it and can find nothing that would indicate it was unacceptable.

That's interesting to know that instructors have to pass a hand signals' test. So hand signals may still be included in the driving test?

Why has my entry been reported? I can't even remember what I wrote now. I'd love to know what I wrote that appeared to be unacceptable to someone.

Can anyone throw some light upon this?

Why has my entry been reported? I can't even remember what I wrote now. I'd love to know what I wrote that appeared to be unacceptable to someone.

Can anyone throw some light upon this?

With regard to the comment about hand signals.

The Part 3 (final stage of tests for anyone wishing to become a driving instructor) consists of 10 Pre-Set Tests. One of these includes teaching hand signals.

Chris