88 year old confusing brake with accelerator (maybe)

[Koolau]

There are some people who drive incorrectly, using their left foot on the brake and right foot on the accelerator pedal.
A bit of a different issue...

Yeah, those are the folks whose brake lights are always on.

 

[Car-Guy]

There are some people who drive incorrectly, using their left foot on the brake and right foot on the accelerator pedal.
A bit of a different issue...

Yeah, those are the folks whose brake lights are always on.

Yep, some of those people think they are NASCAR drivers since that's the way they drive. I don't think that was the OP's mom's problem.

 

[aja8888]

My ex-wife was legally blind in one eye and managed to get a Texas drivers license (go figure!). She had a few small wrecks when she was in her 60's. Then one day she drove right thru the back of her garage and ended up in her backyard. She swore the car was haunted and a ghost did it. She was done driving after that.

 

[Teacher Terry]

People in my family have quit driving when they realize they are unsafe. I intend to carry on that tradition.

 

[harllee]

My mom wanted to keep driving at age 90 but fortunately her doctor told her she could no longer drive because she got lost and mother was OK with that. When she was still driving I made sure she had large liability limits on her auto police and an umbrella policy on top of that.

 

[disneysteve]

My ex-wife was legally blind in one eye and managed to get a Texas drivers license (go figure!). She had a few small wrecks when she was in her 60's. Then one day she drove right thru the back of her garage and ended up in her backyard. She swore the car was haunted and a ghost did it. She was done driving after that.

You only need adequate vision in one eye to be licensed regardless of age. My wife lost vision in her left eye at age 4 due to cancer treatment. She drives just fine.

 

[HtownRose]

Thanks for all the comments. Lots to think about. I'll see what USAA says - they've got the car or will be getting it next week. I think she would accept giving up driving. It's me that has to accept giving up the free time I'll lose when I become her personal Uber.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

You only need adequate vision in one eye to be licensed regardless of age. My wife lost vision in her left eye at age 4 due to cancer treatment. She drives just fine.

More like she drives OK. I have a lazy eye, and for sure my depth perception isn't what it ought to be. Fortunately my wife "drives shotgun" when we're riding together and she is happy to let me know when we're getting too close to the car in front of us.

 

[aja8888]

You only need adequate vision in one eye to be licensed regardless of age. My wife lost vision in her left eye at age 4 due to cancer treatment. She drives just fine.

I think by the time my ex had started smashing into things, her vision was failing in the other eye due to being diabetic.

 

[youbet]

. One test when you’re 16 and you’re allowed to drive until you die. It’s ludicrous. You could be all but blind, have crippling arthritis and dementia and still be getting in your car every day.

Not in Illinois where seniors are retested periodically.

 

[disneysteve]

More like she drives OK. I have a lazy eye, and for sure my depth perception isn't what it ought to be.

Legally you only need vision in one eye. 20/40 or 20/50 is the requirement depending on the state I believe.

You can not, however, get a commercial driver's license (DOT) with monocular vision. You can get a regular license though.

 

[disneysteve]

Oh I definitely haven't been wanting to get her off the road, because I'll be her taxi service when that happens!

Depending on where she lives, there are a lot of options for folks who don't drive. Of course, there is Uber and Lyft. Around here, there is a service called Go, Go, Granny for folks who aren't tech savvy or don't have smart phones. You call them and they arrange the Uber for you for a small service fee. Here in NJ, NJ Transit runs a service called Access Link that provides door to door transportation for seniors and those with disabilities for a modest cost. My mom used that numerous times to go to the theater and some other places. Lots of senior services provide some sort of ride service either free or at a modest cost. My mom has services from the Jewish Federation. They have volunteer drivers who can take her to medical appointments. I think they may also have drivers who can take her elsewhere, like to a store, but I'm not sure about that. There are also many private car services that you can call.

 

[MC Rider]

My Uncle had trouble finding his own house he had lived in for years, even though he drove right past it more than once. A sign he should have quit sooner. We have told 88 yo Dad he should not do like that.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

My Uncle had trouble finding his own house he had lived in for years, even though he drove right past it more than once. A sign he should have quit sooner. We have told 88 yo Dad he should not do like that.

Dad had dementia, but he had moments of clarity. During one of them he came to the realization that he was driving in his condition, and he was horrified.

 

[braumeister]

This is another reason I'm looking forward to someday moving to a CCRC.
Except for medical appointments and special events, there will be little need for driving, and for those things it's easy to get a ride to them. I'm very lucky that I can afford to do so.

 

[TrvlBug]

My ex-wife was legally blind in one eye and managed to get a Texas drivers license (go figure!). She had a few small wrecks when she was in her 60's. Then one day she drove right thru the back of her garage and ended up in her backyard. She swore the car was haunted and a ghost did it. She was done driving after that.

I lost the functional vision in my dominant eye 2.5 years ago caused by emergency eye surgery gone bad. I can drive just fine, thank you . The eyes are amazing. My other eye has taken over and I can do anything with one good eye that I did with 2.

BTW, in my state, after 70, one must take a written test and eye exam every five years.

 

[Walt34]

After writing a pretty decent stack of accident reports at work I've long believed that EVERYONE, not just older drivers, should be retested every four years or so. There is a reason pilots have to take check rides to maintain certification; why should drivers be held to a lesser standard? When an unsafe driver kills someone, is the victim any less dead? Do their friends and relatives grieve any less? It's more tradition than anything else. That and people just don't want to take the time.

There are plenty of idiots on the road as it is and most of them are well under 70, at least in my experience. So I'd like to see it that when a driver's license expires after four or five years or so, everyone has to take the whole driver's test all over again. You think you're a great driver? Great, then you won't have any trouble at all passing the test.

And most driver's tests in the U.S. are a joke anyway. For my driver's test I had to pass a simple multiple-choice test and drive around the block without crashing, and that was in 1966. I haven't been tested since by that state or any state, just my employer, who had much higher standards including skid training. Germany for example takes driving seriously and I think it'd be great if the rest of the world adopted their standards.

 

[Spock]

Then 85 year old dear old dad with dementia and macular degeneration had several parking lot accidents where he hit parked cars while distracted (looking for street numbers on the fronts of strip mall doors). "It was unavoidable".

Fought and fought to get his keys. Drs were useless. "He's still making decisions, they are just bad decisions".

After a fall resulting in a traumatic brain injury he grudgingly stopped driving ... Dad agreed that he couldn't see well enough to drive. I hustled the car out of his garage and got court permission to sell it
.
Last week, now 89 year old dear old dad, now living in assisted living, started demanding his keys back and is getting rather ornery about it.

It's exhausting to fighting the battles to convince them to give up keys, move into ASL, take over rental management, etc etc etc. But it's worse when you have to do it over and over and over again because they forget that they have already agreed to.

 

[Walt34]

Then 85 year old dear old dad with dementia and macular degeneration had several parking lot accidents where he hit parked cars while distracted (looking for street numbers on the fronts of strip mall doors). "It was unavoidable".

That's the thing, it varies so much with the individual. I've seen 90-year-olds that I'd have been comfortable with them driving me across the country, and 20-year-olds that were scary to ride with to the grocery store.

 

[braumeister]

That's the thing, it varies so much with the individual. I've seen 90-year-olds that I'd have been comfortable with them driving me across the country, and 20-year-olds that were scary to ride with to the grocery store.

This is so true. There is an intersection near my home with a four-way stop sign. Nearly every day I see people of all ages who are totally flummoxed by it and will sit there with a death grip on the steering wheel until every other car has gone through. Makes me wonder how they ever managed to get a license in the first place.

 

[disneysteve]

My Uncle had trouble finding his own house he had lived in for years, even though he drove right past it more than once. A sign he should have quit sooner. We have told 88 yo Dad he should not do like that.

My uncle had alzheimers and was still driving. One day my cousin came home and his dad was home but the car wasn't. Cousin asked where the car was and uncle said it was in the garage, except it wasn't. Cousin went driving around town retracing uncle's usual routes until he found the car. It had broken down. We never did find out how uncle got home but that was the last time he drove.

 

[MC Rider]

Yikes! Uncle probably did not remember. At least the car was not crashed.

 

[Koolau]

You only need adequate vision in one eye to be licensed regardless of age. My wife lost vision in her left eye at age 4 due to cancer treatment. She drives just fine.

One of my partners in an aircraft ownership got his pilot license and had only one functioning eye. He did require a special check-pilot to administer his test.

 

[Koolau]

More like she drives OK. I have a lazy eye, and for sure my depth perception isn't what it ought to be. Fortunately my wife "drives shotgun" when we're riding together and she is happy to let me know when we're getting too close to the car in front of us.

Have you tried prism glasses. I've struggled with lazy eye for some time and my eye doc suggested prisms. They are a real adjustment and I can't say I "enjoy" using them, but they do w*rk for me.

 

[Scrapr]

My Dad was about 80 & having Alzheimer's symptoms. Still driving. My brother drove him & Mom from Oregon to Palm Desert for the Winter. My brother added a tracker on the car. He did "OK" during his time there. I was tasked with bringing both of them home by a plane ride. It was a hard talk but he wasn't ready for a 1100 mile drive. When they got home we notified DMV for a retest. Boy he was mad...called his attorney, etc. Got shuffled off to an retest about 30 minutes away. There was no chance he could drive that far. My brother got the brunt of the abuse about it. They went into Assisted Living a few months later

My MIL voluntarily gave up her license at 91. For at least 2 years before she would have someone take her to the store & errands. She handled it pretty well. We sold her almost 20 year old Subaru with 20k miles on the odometer