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Letting your grandfather drive? (1 Viewer)

bosoxs45

bosoxs45

Footballguy
At what age do you think it's acceptable for the elderly to give up their license? My grandpa just turned 90 today and his motor skills are sharp as a tac. He loves driving his Ford Focus around the trailer park in Florida. I worry about his safety driving on a dangerous Florida highway.

 
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My uncle drives at 91.  He (wisely) chooses to stay off the highway and manages the other roads well.  Just gave him my old Honda so he wouldn't have to manage a giant van and he loves it.

Meanwhile, my 68 yo MIL is licensed but shouldn't be.  Lives in a small town but nevertheless gets flustered on those roads.  Heaven forbid it rains while she is out there.

So it is case by case.

 
My grandmother stopped at 92 and it wasn't her driving.

She would only drive around town no highways or anything. And a small town.

Anyway she went to the bank, tripped on the parking block and jacked herself up.  Knee, hip wrist head.

So she stopped

 
In NH a road test is required for license renewals starting at age 75. I think some other states do this as well. Probably something that should be considered everywhere. 

 
bosoxs45 said:
At what age do you think it's acceptable for the elderly to give up their license? My grandpa just turned 90 today and his motor skills are sharp as a tac. He loves driving his Ford Focus around the trailer park in Florida. I worry about his safety driving on a dangerous Florida highway.
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1. When they make that choice.

2. When they're incapable of passing a driving test. 

 
Man it was crazy getting my parents to give up driving.  Mom had Alzheimer's, so every time we would have the conversation she would end up agreeing that it was time to give it up, which she would promptly forget within ten minutes and we would have to do it all over again. 

Dad's license came up for renewal at 88 and he didn't drive much anymore, but he did not want to give it up, due to pride, cantankerousness and personal freedom.  I took him to the DMV and stood behind him while he filled out the forms.  I gave the "throat slash" sign to the lady working with him and she smiled, knowingly.  She said he needed a doctor's permission based on a vision test.  A few days later we went to the doc and he failed the vision test spectacularly.  He asked the nurse on the way out how he did and she said, "I wouldn't want you driving behind me!"  I wanted to kiss her.

 
bosoxs45 said:
At what age do you think it's acceptable for the elderly to give up their license? My grandpa just turned 90 today and his motor skills are sharp as a tac. He loves driving his Ford Focus around the trailer park in Florida. I worry about his safety driving on a dangerous Florida highway.
Click to expand...
My Grandmother-in-law (now 101!) stopped driving in her mid 90s she is similar and sill living alone then. She would only drive around town, and never at night. If we were all somewhere, one of the relatives would drive her home in her van, and the rest of their family would follow and pick the driver up.

She gave her license up when she moved to an assisted living facility, she really didn't need it anymore. I wasn't in on why she moved, but I bet her worsening driving had something to do with it. She is still in great shape for her age.

 
I got sideswiped by an old guy in a big Caddy a while back, luckily neither of us were hurt.  He said he thought was in a parking lot when we were actually on a highway.  Pretty sure the cops pulled his license on the spot.  I got the feeling he didn't have a lot of family, so likely no one in his life to tell him to stop driving.

DMVs should make driving test mandatory after 75 years old, IMO.  Without that, the responsibility of keeping these old fogies off the road falls on their close family members, assuming they even have any.  

 
bosoxs45 said:
At what age do you think it's acceptable for the elderly to give up their license? My grandpa just turned 90 today and his motor skills are sharp as a tac. He loves driving his Ford Focus around the trailer park in Florida. I worry about his safety driving on a dangerous Florida highway.
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It depends on their ability level.  Everyone ages differently.

 
The "driving around town but no highway" thing makes no sense to me. You can either drive safely or not, and I was more worried about my MIL hitting someone in a crosswalk or backing over a little kid in a parking lot than I was her crashing on the highway. She lives with us, dementia is rapidly setting in, finally got her off the road this past October. It wasn't easy, we hid her keys but she had others stashed all over the place, would forget she promised not to drive. Finally I just unhooked the battery and told her it would cost thousands to fix.

 
Buttonhook said:
I got sideswiped by an old guy in a big Caddy a while back, luckily neither of us were hurt.  He said he thought was in a parking lot when we were actually on a highway.  Pretty sure the cops pulled his license on the spot.  I got the feeling he didn't have a lot of family, so likely no one in his life to tell him to stop driving.

DMVs should make driving test mandatory after 75 years old, IMO.  Without that, the responsibility of keeping these old fogies off the road falls on their close family members, assuming they even have any.  
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This is one of those things that only those who are 75+, or almost that age would object to as it is so obvious.  Of course, the AARP lobby is among the strongest so no way that never gets passed.

 
brun said:
In NH a road test is required for license renewals starting at age 75. I think some other states do this as well. Probably something that should be considered everywhere. 
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Elderly driving test giver has to be one of the ####tier jobs out there.

 
Keith R said:
My uncle drives at 91.  He (wisely) chooses to stay off the highway and manages the other roads well.  Just gave him my old Honda so he wouldn't have to manage a giant van and he loves it.

Meanwhile, my 68 yo MIL is licensed but shouldn't be.  Lives in a small town but nevertheless gets flustered on those roads.  Heaven forbid it rains while she is out there.

So it is case by case.
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jeesus ...I will be 61 at the end of the month ...am I that close to the end of my life?????????????

 
bosoxs45 said:
At what age do you think it's acceptable for the elderly to give up their license? My grandpa just turned 90 today and his motor skills are sharp as a tac. He loves driving his Ford Focus around the trailer park in Florida. I worry about his safety driving on a dangerous Florida highway.
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Can he just get a nice golf cart to drive around del  boca vista?

 
The ability to safely drive varies on a case by case basis.  Some should stop in their 90's.  Some in their 70's.  Some should have stopped driving at 16.

From an insurance standpoint, we found that although the frequency of accidents of drivers over age 70 was lower in general, the severity of the accidents increased versus the general population.  I counseled my older clients to watch out for the little bumps in parking lots.  One, not a big deal.  Two or three bumps in a short period of time is an indicator of a large claim coming, and they should consider not driving for their safety and the safety of others. 

Off topic: I could argue that we should reverse the driving at 16 and drinking at 21.

 
My grandfather is gone now but he was driving into his 90s. His last couple of years driving he would drive with two feet, one on the gas and the other on the brake, working them like a see-saw.  :drive:

He ended up getting into what was really a minor accident but the other drivers who were driving entirely too fast thought they were gonna get rich off of him and tried to sue. Nobody was seriously hurt but even he realized his driving days were over. 

 
My dad is 81 and my mom is really worried about him driving.  He only drives "local", and tries to keep it to daytime hours.  He got in a small fender-bender on the way back from our house one night.  My mom was driving behind him and saw him driving wayyyy to the right in a wider right-hand lane, as if he was going to turn right at the next intersection.  He ended up rear-ending a vintage Benz.  He said his foot was falling asleep or something to that effect.

We stressed that he needed a safer vehicle (he was driving a late 80's Mustang).  He sold the Mustang and just bought a 2007 CR-V.  Much better.

He'll use it to schlep around, usually to get coffee in the morning.  But he doesn't really do much without my mom and she will do the driving.

 
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