On the subject of older drivers.

[gaijindabe]

Faced with a worsening shortage of long-haul truck drivers, freight carriers are turning to the RV generation, aggressively recruiting older couples like the Fords to climb behind the wheel. Schneider National Inc., the Green Bay, Wis., company that hired the Fords and put them through driving school, fishes for applicants through AARP, the advocacy group for people 50 and older, and has a Web page for "mature workers." This fall, the American Trucking Association plans a billboard and television ad blitz to lure older drivers.

"We just thought if Ma and Pa can drive the Winnebago, maybe they can drive the 18-wheeler," says Tim Lynch, a senior vice president at the trade group.

http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/trucker_1.html

[singpilot]

I resemble that remark!

[island_dude]

I guess I am less worried about these older drivers than the typical ones. Truckers get a whole lot more screening than your average old fart taking to the roads on a Sunday drive.

[cegerer]

It's the 75 and older crowd that is dangerous. Had an 80+ year old in a Crown Vic (what else?) blow a stop sign at 60MPH near my home last week. I was turning left in front of him and had the right-of-way and only avoided instant death by recognizing that this guy wasn't slowing down. I'm not sure my daughter or wife would have been alert enough to figure out what was happening if they had been in that situation. People over 75 should be required to pass a performance driving test to maintain a license.

[Dixie]

It's the 75 and older crowd that is dangerous.

And yet my 85-year-old father runs track days. I’m sure you'll point out he's a statistical anomaly. To which I'll point out that statistically drivers who are 16-to-21 are the most dangerous drivers on the road.


Maybe we should only let the really safe drivers on the road: Females, age 40-to-50.

[singpilot]

I would bet that any driver that is NOT

- Talking on a cell phone,
- Jammin to the XM,
- Arguing with the MIL, Wife, GF, Son, Daughter, Rush Limbaugh, or the aliens in the trunk.
- Putting on make-up, clothes, shoes, false eyelashes, gel inserts, stockings.
- Talking on a cell phone.
- Eating anything.
- Wearing headphones.
- Drinking anything.
- Using a laptop, blackberry or texting anything.
- Smoking everything.
- Talking on a cell phone.


is a safe and reasonable driver.

Damn few of those around.

[Racerbvd]

Are they going after retired drivers?? I wouldn't have a problem with that, like Capt. Carrera, I know guys in their 70 &80 who are fine on both street & track.

[cegerer]

All I'm saying is give the 75+ crowd a driving test because as a group, the % of dangerous drivers is high - very, very high.

Here's my proposal: use the exact same test as my 16 year old just went thru to get her license. Except, I'd be willing to just let them do the 'parking lot' portion with no road test:

1. Pull up to an orange cone and stop with your front bumper within 2 feet (this would eliminate 25% of them right off the bat).

2. From a 90 degree angle, back into a simulated parking spot (12x20 feet) and stop with your rear bumper within 2 feet of the rear line.

3. Parallel park in a spot 8 feet wide and your vehicle length + 6 feet long. Don't need to be centered, just need to do it in one motion.

Those 3 tests don't mean somebody knows how to drive well, but they will weed out most of the zombies and prevent them from injuring/killing innocent people.

[KNS]

Paul Newman is my hero, that guy is older than dirt and he's out there running the 24 hrs of Daytona. Maybe he is an exception but I hope that I've got enough of my wits about me do something like that at his age.

[RoninLB]

70+ no prob around here. They have their nurses riding shotgun and notifying them of the signal color and of on-coming intersections. They blame any accidents on their doc changing their scripts.