Old Age Driving

In my mind it was bound to happen, just maybe not to this extent. With 100 of senior citizen gathering at the Northgate Mall for the Flu Shot Clinic I was sure there would be a fender-bender or someone driving on the wrong side of the road. Why you ask? Because senior's shouldn't be able to drive! On Flu Clinic day there should be buses leaving every mall (like they do at concerts and such) so seniors can go get their shots without jepordizing everyone elses safety.

My great grandma (who is 93) just gave up her license last month. She was not a horrible driver (in fact my family was looking for reasons to take away her license but could never catch her doing anything wrong) but it still scared the heck out of me when she got behind the wheel. She would sneak out of the city of Moose Jaw (which she was not allowed to do because my grandma had put limits on where she drives) and then she would lie about where she was. This one evening James and I were coming home from visiting his brother in Carenport when we passed her on the highway, driving 90 km/h in her K-Car. I called my grandma and tattled on my great-grandma and later when my grandma called to confront her she said that it wasn't her! LIAR! (HA! How many other ladies drive with grey driving gloves, in a white K-Car, with a CAA and bible bumper stick, and look exactly like Gladys?). My great-grandma had always said she needed her car because would drive seniors to get their groceries. But when you are driving seniors who are younger than you are around, I think you should take a hint and find someone to drive you around.

Once when I was driving home from school this old man and his wife were coming down our side of the street. And it was a divided street, so that meant he had been driving down our side for a while! There were tons of people behind us and he was just coming straight at us. Finally he realized he was in trouble and just stopped dead in the road. People were trying to explain to him that he needed to reverse for a while inorder to get out or to just turn around. Well, he tried turning around and hit his tires on the curb and then got stuck! And during all this his wife didn't think anything was wrong and just kept looking out the window.

I am not against senior citizens, I just think they don't need to be driving around at their age (over 85 or so....). They are scarey and unaware of how they should be driving. And also, many of them love HUGE cars but to be honest they can not handle huge cars because they can't see over the steering wheel or know how long they are. If seniors are going to drive they need to drive smart cars or golf carts so they are aware of what's around them and they can't pack all their friends in the car to distract them!