Blog #20! Let's pick on old people!

I am very glad I was able to quickly come up with a topic for my 20th blog rather quickly after my 19th blog entry. I have a little old lady to thank for this topic. Duba goes straight to disrespecting his elder in this one.

(P.S. - make it to the end, and I have a hilarious treat for you!)

So, yesterday morning I saw a three car fender bender/pile up on Evesham road on my way in to work from the gym. I saw the driver at the end of the line (and presumably the cause of it all). All the cars were on the shoulder, as that is where most cars either going straight or right on to Burnt Mill Road go. The cars were all still "connected" to each other from the accident. Clearly the driver of car number one smashed car number 2 into car number 3. I think that also makes car #2 at fault as well as you are supposed to leave adequate space in between you and the next car. I have been smashed from behind in pretty weak cars and not even come close to the cars in front of me.

My real problem with this whole accident was the driver of car #1. She must have been pushing the age of 173 years. She was meek, meager, and mildly shaking. I had my window cracked and could hear her and the other drivers talking. She said, "I had no idea anybody was in front of me that close!" The other drivers, obviously frustrated, seemed to be sensitive to the elderly lady. Good for them. However, I am sure they were thinking somewhere along the lines of how I was thinking - should she have been allowed to drive?

Now, let me set the driving conditions for this as well: Bright sun in your eyes down this stretch of Evesham Road. Fairly and routinely busy at that time in the morning. People make a-hole moves all the time in this area. This accident was right after a train overpass, where the road also dips down, is slightly shaded, and dips back up. However, the traffic light at the intersection of Burnt Mill/Evesham is clearly visible. Also, the traffic does not allow you to get up to a big speed. People who make these "a-hole" move I suggested usually creep up the other lane and cut in line.

So, how could this be avoided? Well, maybe Ms. Time (wife of Father Time) was not fit to drive. I make this statement rather boldly, as anybody who has known me for the past decade knows that I have been in several accidents (only one in the past 5 years - and that was not my fault). Should I have been retested after having seemingly one accident after another? Sure! I should have redone a driving test, eye test, and general knowledge test. Who knows what this elderly lady was dealing with - poor sight, slow decision making, anything that is indicative of one getting older and slowing down.

I posted about something like this once before on Facebook that people over 60 should have to take the driving test every year. Hell, they should even take the vision test, too. This woman could not see the line of cars a half mile long. Maybe the sun was in her eyes. Okay. Where her accident occurred, she had enough time in the shaded overpass area to react compared to how much further down the road before she played bumper cars. You have to see these cars.

Maybe she saw them and by the time she thought about the scenario she would be in if she did not slow down, it was too late. How are we to know there is a woman behind us lurking in her car with the inability to make a conscious decision to hit the brakes?

Why not test these older people (and repeat violators as well as repeat car crahsers) every year? You want to keep us safe? Suspending a license is not the answer. All that does is lower somebody's practice time behind the wheel.

Want some examples? My 91 year old grandmother, God bless her, drove her car into her garage. Without the opening the door first. I do not quite remember the details, but she just had a panicky moment. She was lucky (as was I fortunate) that she did not get hurt.

At my grandmother's house in Maryland a few years back, I read a front page article in the county times newspaper about an elderly man involved in a slow-speed chase. This man had no clue police were trying to pull him over. It almost read like that scene from Super Troopers where the kid says "He is pulled over he can't pull over anymore." He was old and delirious. He was being pulled over for going too slow. Police, rightfully so, found that to be just as dangerous as somebody driving 20 mph over the speed limit. I think 3-4 sets of cops eventually stopped this mad man.

My best friend's mother was badly injured when a diabetic old mad man went into shock after he knowingly ate ice cream, fell asleep at the wheel, and sent her flying 50 feet away.

So what is the answer? What is ethical? Certainly not euthanasia as my readers in Russia are probably suggesting. No, the answer is simple - after you turn 60, you get tested every year. If the state deems you incompetent to drive anymore, well, the gig is up (same for people with numerous moving violations and at fault accidents).

Now, if you made it this far, please enjoy this video montage of possibly the greatest thing ever to watch in person - women I don't know trying to park:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=women+parking+montage&oq=women+parking+montage&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=5113l5113l0l6399l1l1l0l0l0l0l155l155l0.1l1l0